Trump suggests possible US return to Afghan base, citing China proximity

President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that he is working to reestablish a US presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, four years after America's chaotic withdrawal from the country left the base in the Taliban's hands.

Trump floated the idea during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he wrapped up a state visit to the UK and tied it to the need for the US to counter its top rival, China.

We're trying to get it back, Trump said of the base in an aside to a question about ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

While Trump described his call for the US military to reestablish a position in Afghanistan as breaking news, the Republican president has previously raised the idea. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about whether it or the Pentagon has done any planning around returning to the sprawling air base, which was central to America's longest war.

During his first presidency, Trump set the terms for the US withdrawal by negotiating a deal with the Taliban. The 20-year conflict came to an end in disquieting fashion under President Joe Biden: The US-backed Afghan government collapsed, a grisly bombing killed 13 US troops and 170 others, and thousands of desperate Afghans descended on Kabul's airport in search of a way out before the final US aircraft departed over the Hindu Kush.

The Afghanistan debacle was a major setback just eight months into Biden's Democratic presidency that he struggled to recover from.

Biden's Republican detractors, including Trump, seized on it as a signal moment in a failed presidency. Those criticisms have persisted into the present day, including as recently as last week, when Trump claimed the move emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine in February 2022.

He would have never done what he did, except that he didn't respect the leadership of the United States, Trump said, speaking of Putin. They just went through the Afghanistan total disaster for no reason whatsoever. We were going to leave Afghanistan, but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity. We were going to keep Bagram Air Base one of the biggest air bases in the world. We gave it to them for nothing.

It is unclear if the US has any new direct or indirect conversations with the Taliban government about returning to the country. But Trump hinted that the Taliban, who have struggled with an economic crisis, international legitimacy, internal rifts and rival militant groups since their return to power in 2021, could be game to allow the US military to return.

We're trying to get it back because they need things from us, Trump said of the Taliban.

The president repeated his view that a US presence at Bagram is of value because of its proximity to China, the most significant economic and military competitor to the United States.

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," Trump said. So a lot of things are happening.

While the US and the Taliban have no formal diplomatic ties, the sides have had hostage conversations. An American man who was abducted more than two years ago while travelling through Afghanistan as a tourist was released by the Taliban in March.

Last week, the Taliban also said they reached an agreement with US envoys on an exchange of prisoners as part of an effort to normalise relations between the United States and Afghanistan.

The Taliban gave no details of a detainee swap, and the White House did not comment on the meeting in Kabul or the results described in a Taliban statement. The Taliban released photographs from their talks, showing their foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, with Trump's special envoy for hostage response, Adam Boehler.

Officials at US Central Command in the Middle East and the Pentagon, including Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's office, referred questions about reestablishing a presence at Bagram to the White House.