Taliban Rebuffs Trump’s Effort to Regain Air Base in Afghanistan

Asia Pacific|Taliban Rebuffs Trump’s Effort to Regain Air Base in Afghanistan

Taliban officials late Thursday rejected a suggestion by President Trump that the United States might regain control of the last base it abandoned during its withdrawal from Afghanistan, but they left open the possibility of talks to improve ties between the two countries.

During a news conference on Thursday with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, Mr. Trump said that his administration had been working to reclaim the facility, the Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, which U.S. forces abandoned in 2021 shortly before the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan.

“We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” Mr. Trump said. He added that Bagram was strategically important for the United States because “it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”

Mr. Trump has said in the past that the United States should not have abandoned the air base, but his comments on Thursday were the first public acknowledgment that negotiations to reclaim it might be underway.

The Taliban government was quick to respond, suggesting that it was open to conversation but not the return of U.S. security personnel.

“Without the U.S. having any military presence in Afghanistan, both Afghanistan and the U.S. need to engage with each other, and they can have political and economic relations based on mutual respect and shared interests,” Zakir Jalaly, an Afghan foreign ministry official, said on social media.

“Afghans have never accepted the military presence of anyone throughout history,” Mr. Jalaly added. “But for other kinds of engagement, all paths remain open for them.” He called Mr. Trump “a good businessman and negotiator, more than just a politician.”

Other officials were less diplomatic. Muhajer Farahi, a deputy minister, posted part of a poem on X: “Those who once smashed their heads against the rocks with us, their minds have still not found peace.” He ended his post with “Bagram, Afghanistan.”

Mr. Trump did not specify in his comments on Thursday what he envisioned for Bagram. The United States has kept a minimal level of public engagement with Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, restricting it to hostage negotiations. In a rare visit to Afghanistan last week, Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s special envoy for hostage response, met with the Afghan foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, in Kabul.

The State Department referred any comment about Bagram to the White House, which referred comments to the Department of Defense. It said in a statement on Thursday that “we are always ready to execute any mission at the president’s direction.”

Afghanistan has remained largely isolated on the global stage since the Taliban took control, in August 2021. The Taliban government has not been recognized by any country other than Russia. Its economy is struggling to attract foreign support and private investments. And as high-level meetings at the United Nations General Assembly are set to begin on Monday, Afghanistan will once again not be represented because its officials face a U.N. travel ban.

Bagram, which sits 25 miles north of Kabul and was built by the Soviet Union in the 1950s, was the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan during its 20-year occupation of the country.

Mr. Trump said in March that the United States should have stayed at Bagram “not because of Afghanistan but because of China, because it’s exactly one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles.” At the time, he claimed that Bagram was “now under China’s influence,” which the Taliban denied.

During its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States left behind thousands of weapons and other pieces of military equipment and a sprawling embassy compound that sits vacant in the center of Kabul. U.S. military uniforms and shoes can still be found in Kabul’s bazaars, and a message in graffiti greets international visitors coming from the airport: “Our nation defeated America with the help of God.”

Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington D.C., and Safiullah Padshah from Kabul, Afghanistan