&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "US to re-enter Afghanistan? Trump shares 'breaking news' about Bagram Airbase, says 'Chinese nuclear weapons are made...'")
Issuing a big statement, United States President Donald Trump on Thursday (Sep 18) said that efforts were underway to regain control of Afghanistan's Bagram Airbase, which the US had given up control on following the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Speaking at a press conference alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in UK, Trump suggested it could be considered "breaking news" and explained that the US was seeking the return of the base adding a China angle to it. This comes almost four months after Trump claimed that China is occupying the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan.
United States President Donald Trump said, "We're trying to get it back, by the way," the president said of the airbase. "That could be a little breaking news. We're trying to get it back. Because they need things from us. We want that base back." The president said one reason the US wants control of the base is its location, saying it's an “hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”
In May this year, addressing the US troops at the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Trump said that the United States will keep Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, stressing, "We will not give it up." He stressed that it is just an hour away from China, claiming that China occupies it. “We are going to keep Bagram Airbase, we are not going to give that up because its one hour away from China. You know who occupies it now, China. Sadly, over the last four years, we saw a collapse in Afghanistan,” he added. Soon after Trump's claims, the Taliban had categorically denied reports of a Chinese presence at Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase.
Story of Bagram Airbase
Bagram Airbase is a major military airfield, located in the Parwan province of Afghanistan. The largest air base in Afghanistan lies about 60 km north of Kabul in the Parwan province. The airbase was built by the Soviet Union in 1950 and the USSR had control over it during the early days of the Cold War. During the Soviet-Afghan war, the airbase was fortified and started lodging military personnel from the USSR. The US came in the picturee in 1959, when then US President Dwight Eisenhower paid a visit to Afghanistan and landed in Bagram.
In 1990, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, and the airbase was left abandoned. It then became the frontline between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance military. However, during the conflict, the airbase was severely damaged. Later in 2001 after the 9/11 terror attack, the US and its Western allies took over the Afghan airfield. For the next 20 years, they controlled the Bagram airbase, claiming that they were using it for America's "War on terrorism". In 2020, the US and the Taliban signed a deal to withdraw international forces from Afghanistan by May 2021.
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