Even as Trump has hinted that the Taliban would allow the US to regain control of Bagram Air Base, on Thursday, officials within the Afghan government dismissed such notions.

It was just over four years ago, on August 30, 2021, that the final American military flight departed from Hamid Karzai International Airport. That flight, the last of the chaotic “Kabul Airlift” of summer 2021, completed the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan amid the fall of the US-backed government and the resurgence of the Taliban—ending America’s longest war on a decidedly sour note.

However, the US military could return in some capacity, The Associated Press reported earlier this week.

President Donald Trump has been considering a plan that could see the United States reestablish a presence at the Bagram Air Base, which was abandoned during the chaotic withdrawal that occurred under the Biden administration and left the facility in the hands of the Taliban.

The AP reported that “Trump floated the idea during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer” during the president’s state visit to the UK. Trump “tied it to the need” to counter China—as Beijing has pursued practical engagement with the Taliban, unlike the Western approach of isolating the Afghan regime. The Taliban has also continued to court foreign partners beyond China, opening the door for the United States.

“We’re trying to get it back,” Trump said, referring to the base that the Soviet Union built in the 1950s.

This isn’t the first time that Trump has called for the US to retake control of the base, even as he set in motion the eventual pullout from Afghanistan during his first term. The eventual withdrawal occurred during President Joe Biden’s first year in office, and it coincided with the complete collapse of the US-backed Afghan government, resulting in a bombing that killed 13 US service members and 170 others.

The “debacle” proved to be a significant setback for the Biden administration, and was a turning point in his popularity from which he never recovered.

Trump has attempted to claim that the situation would have been different had he been president during the final US pullout. He has also claimed that the US would have maintained some presence at the base past the pullout date.

“We were going to leave Afghanistan, but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity,” Trump said recently. “We were going to keep Bagram Air Base—one of the biggest air bases in the world. We gave it to them for nothing.” 

Trump’s Interest in Afghanistan Is All About China

Trump has also highlighted the base’s close proximity to China.

“One of the reasons we want that base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons,” Trump said. “So a lot of things are happening.”

The president appears to have erred in that statement. Although Afghanistan does share a short border with China’s western Xinjiang region, the closest known Chinese nuclear sites are more than 1,200 miles away.

Trump also claimed that Beijing might take over Bagram Air Base, though there has so far been no evidence to suggest a Chinese presence there.

“China respects Afghanistan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty”, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told the BBC on Friday, adding that “the future of Afghanistan should be in the hands of Afghan people.”

The Taliban Doesn’t Want the US Military to Come Back

Even as Trump has hinted that the Taliban would allow the US to regain control of the base, on Thursday, officials within the Afghan government dismissed such notions.

“Afghanistan and the U.S. need to interact with each other and can have economic and political relations based on mutual respect and common interests,” Zakir Jalaly, an official with the Taliban Foreign Ministry, wrote in Pashto in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “The Afghans have not accepted a military presence in history, and this possibility was completely rejected during the Doha talks and agreement, but the door is open for further interaction.”