News - World: US President Donald Trump says his administration has been working to once again occupy the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, which American forces abandoned in 2021 as part of their irresponsible withdrawal from the war-torn country.

During a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, Trump criticized the handling of the US pullout from Afghanistan under his predecessor Joe Biden and said he had "a little breaking news."

“One of the biggest airbases in the world. We gave it to them for nothing. We’re trying to get it back, by the way,” he said of Bagram, situated in northeastern Afghanistan.

He also cited the airbase’s proximity to China, saying “it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”

He further claimed that Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban government needs the US. “We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us. We want that base back,” he said.

The Taliban rejected the US military’s return to Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan and the United States need to engage with one another … without the United States maintaining any military presence in any part of Afghanistan,” Zakir Jalal, an official at the Taliban Foreign Ministry, posted on social media.

Kabul, he added, is ready to pursue political and economic ties with Washington based on “mutual respect and shared interests.”

Bagram was once the largest US military base in Afghanistan. It saw more than 100,000 troops pass through its compound during the peak of the US military campaign in Afghanistan.

Earlier this year, Trump lamented the loss of the Bagram airbase and claimed that it was "occupied" by China.  

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the airfield was controlled by Afghanistan, not China.

The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 after the chaotic withdrawal of US-led troops. 

The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, despite the fact that no Afghan national was involved in the attacks. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans were killed during the 20-year US invasion of the Asian country.

Source: Press TV