【Text by Observers Network, Xiong Chaoran】After previously using the tactic of "stirring up trouble with China" to hype up the issue, US President Trump has once again pressured Afghanistan over the control of Bagram Air Base, which was regained.

On September 20 local time, Trump posted on his self-created social media platform "Truth Social" threatening: "If Afghanistan does not return Bagram Air Base to its builder - the United States, bad things will happen!!!"

Two days earlier (September 18), Trump told reporters in the UK that his government was preparing to reclaim Bagram Air Base. At that time, he repeatedly emphasized the base's "strategic value," claiming it was "necessary," and even made a forced connection to China, hyping up the claim that "the base is near China's nuclear weapons facilities."

"By the way, we are trying to regain (Bagram Air Base)," Trump described his idea that day as "a little breaking news," and claimed: "We are trying to regain the base because (Afghan government officials) need us to provide something. We want to regain the base, but one of the reasons we want to regain it is, as you know, it is only an hour's flight away from China's nuclear weapons manufacturing site."

Reuters reported that on September 19 local time, Trump also told journalists in the White House Oval Office that he was negotiating with Afghanistan on this matter. However, Afghan officials have stated opposition to the U.S. resuming military presence. Zakir Jalal, an official from the interim government's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote on the social media platform X on September 8 local time: "Afghanistan and the United States need to engage with each other... but the United States cannot maintain any military presence anywhere in Afghanistan."

On September 19, Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, responded to the relevant issue, stating that China respects Afghanistan's independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and that the future of Afghanistan should be in the hands of the Afghan people. It is unpopular to incite tension and create confrontation in the region, and hopes that all parties will play a constructive role in regional peace and stability.

An F-16 fighter jet of the U.S. Air Force takes off from Bagram Air Base (photographed on January 23, 2015) Wikipedia

Bagram Air Base is located 44 kilometers north of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. It was the largest military base of the United States in Afghanistan and also the central hub of the 20-year U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Until August 2021, when the U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan, the base was also abandoned.

According to Reuters, during the Afghanistan War, Bagram Air Base had fast food chains like Burger King and KFC to serve the U.S. troops, as well as shops selling everything from electronics to Afghan carpets. In addition, the base also had a large prison.

The South China Morning Post once reported that Bagram Base is currently under the control of the Afghan Taliban-led interim government's Ministry of Defense. Previously, Trump had repeatedly hyped up and denigrated the relationship between the base and China, but the Afghan side denied this claim.

Furthermore, Reuters cited several current and former U.S. officials who said that Trump's plan to reoccupy Bagram Air Base would require deploying more than 10,000 U.S. soldiers and various advanced air defense systems, which seems likely to be "a new invasion of Afghanistan."

According to reports, on September 18 local time, during a state visit to the UK and a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Starmer, Trump again criticized the Biden administration's Afghan policy as a "total disaster," believing that the U.S. could have withdrawn "strongly and with dignity" while maintaining control over the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Trump hinted that the U.S. could reclaim Bagram Air Base after obtaining some form of consent from the Afghan Taliban, but he did not provide any specific details about ongoing negotiations, and it remains unclear what form the agreement would take.

Local time September 18, 2025, Aylesbury, UK, U.S. President Trump and British Prime Minister Starmer hold a press conference at Chequers. Visual China

Reuters noted that if Trump returns to the White House, he has vowed to hope the U.S. gains territories such as the Panama Canal and Greenland. For years, it seems he has also been focusing on Bagram Air Base. If Trump's "military garrison plan" becomes reality, it would mean a "major reversal," because the current Afghan Taliban, who have been committed to expelling the U.S. and taking back the country from the U.S.-backed government, now hold power.

In March this year, when asked about Trump's claim that "China controlled the airbase," Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid warned the U.S.: "They should not make emotional statements based on unfounded information."

In Reuters' interview report, a former senior U.S. Department of Defense official downplayed the significance of regaining the base, including the so-called "geographical advantage" that Trump hyped up. "I don't think there is any particular military advantage there," said this former military official. "The risks of regaining the base can be said to outweigh the benefits."

During Trump's first term in office, the U.S. government reached an agreement with the Afghan Taliban in Doha, the capital of Qatar, in February 2020, agreeing to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 2021. Subsequently, the Biden administration set the deadline for withdrawal as August 31, 2021. However, in August 2021, the Afghan Taliban entered and took control of Kabul, and the international coalition led by the U.S. evacuated in a hasty and chaotic manner, bringing an end to America's longest war in a messy and embarrassing way.

In the following two weeks, a shocking mass evacuation unfolded at Kabul International Airport, with thousands of Afghans rushing into the airport, running alongside U.S. military planes as they slid down the runway, some trying to grab the sides of the planes, at least six people falling from the sky; the Islamic State's Khorasan Province (IS-K) launched a terrorist attack at the airport, and the U.S. military opened fire on the crowd in panic, resulting in approximately 200 deaths, including 13 U.S. soldiers.

August 16, 2021, a U.S. C-17 transport plane slides along the runway at Kabul Airport, with people running beside it. Video screenshot

Western societies generally consider the withdrawal from Afghanistan as one of the worst governance scandals since Biden took office, and the Biden administration has admitted that hundreds of billions of dollars in military equipment fell into the hands of the Afghan Taliban.

Many overseas social network users, media, and even U.S. congressmen compared this U.S. withdrawal to the latest version of the "Saigon moment." AFP described the U.S. withdrawal from Kabul as echoing the "exit from Saigon"; then-U.S. Senate Republican Leader McConnell compared the fall of Kabul to the "humiliating moment of Saigon in 1975."

Notably, in a report released by the White House in April 2023, the Biden administration blamed the situation largely on the previous Trump administration. The White House report stated that the Trump administration lacked preparation for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and did not provide the Biden administration with plans for the final stage of evacuating American citizens and Afghans who worked for the U.S., saying that "President Biden's choices for withdrawing from Afghanistan were severely limited by the conditions created by his predecessor."

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