September 19, 2025 | 06:27 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Afghanistan has rejected former U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal for the United States military to return to the country and reclaim the Bagram airbase.
An Afghan Foreign Ministry official wrote on social media Friday that Kabul was open to engaging with Washington but firmly opposed the reestablishment of any U.S. military base in the country.
Trump floated the idea a day earlier, on Thursday, September 18, 2025, saying his administration wanted to regain control of Bagram because of its strategic value, particularly its proximity to China.
“We’re looking at it,” Trump told reporters. “We handed it over to [the Taliban] without any conditions. Bagram is exactly one hour from where China produces its nuclear missiles.”
Taliban officials immediately dismissed the proposal. “Afghanistan and the United States need to work together without the U.S. maintaining a military presence in any part of Afghanistan,” said Zakir Jalal, an Afghan Foreign Ministry official, in a social media statement.
Kabul reiterated its willingness to build political and economic relations with Washington, provided they are based on mutual respect and shared interests.
Located just north of Kabul, Bagram served as the hub of U.S. military operations during America’s two-decade war in Afghanistan. It was also notorious for detentions; thousands of people were held there for years without trial, many subjected to mistreatment or torture under the banner of the U.S. “war on terror.”
The Taliban retook the base in 2021 following the U.S. withdrawal and the collapse of the Afghan government.
Trump has long lamented the decision to abandon Bagram, arguing that a small U.S. force should have been kept there, not for Afghanistan’s sake, but because of its location near China. He reiterated the idea during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the close of his state visit to the UK, NPR reported.
The White House and the Pentagon have not issued any official response to Trump’s remarks.
During his first presidency, Trump negotiated directly with the Taliban to set conditions for the U.S. troop withdrawal.
The 20-year war ultimately ended in chaos under President Joe Biden: the Afghan government collapsed, a suicide bombing killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 civilians, and thousands of desperate Afghans swarmed Kabul’s airport before the final American flight lifted off over the Hindu Kush mountains.
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