Donald Trump
By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
September 19, 2025
President Donald Trump said the United States is attempting to get Bagram Airfield back from Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, citing the extremist group’s need for US help and the facility’s proximity to China’s nuclear assets.
“We’re trying to get it back, by the way, that could be a little breaking news,” Trump said on September 18 during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London.
“We’re trying to get it back because they [Taliban rulers] need things from us,” he said without being specific.
“But one of the reasons we want that base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons. So a lot of things are happening,” Trump added.
Trump in May also lamented the loss of the sprawling base some 40 kilometers outside of Kabul, saying at the time that it was “occupied” by China.
Neither Trump nor US officials said what was meant by the possibility to “get it back” or if any negotiations had taken place.
The Taliban did not immediately comment on Trump’s remarks.
The Taliban rulers, beset by unrest, natural disasters, poverty, and terrorist attacks, have attempted to improve ties to the global community, although Russia is the only country to so far establish diplomatic relations.
Western nations have said the country must first improve its human rights record, especially in regard to treatment of women and girls.
Bagram was once the largest US military base in Afghanistan, but it was handed over in July 2021 to the previous Afghan government — weeks before the chaotic withdrawal of US troops and the eventual takeover of the country by the Taliban.
The base, built by the Soviets in the 1950s, saw more than 100,000 US troops pass through its compound during the peak of the US military’s involvement in the country.
The Soviets withdrew in 1989, opening the floodgates to a civil war that killed tens of thousands of civilians and eventually brought to the Taliban, who overran Kabul in 1996, to power for the first time.
The US administration during Trump’s first term announced the eventual withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
But it was during the administration of President Joe Biden that the pullout actually took place, with ensuing chaos and the death of at least 13 US troops marking the end of America’s 20-year presence in the country following the earlier removal of the Taliban.
“We were going to leave Afghanistan, but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity,” Trump said. “We were going to keep Bagram, the big air base — one of the biggest air bases in the world — we gave it to them for nothing.”
With reporting by Reuters and AFP