U.S. President Donald Trump has alleged that China now controls the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, which was left by the United States in 2021.
The U.S. departed Bagram, its largest airfield in the country, in July 2021.
“…But we were supposed to keep Bagram, the major Air Force base, which is situated one hour away from where China manufactures its nuclear weapons. That’s what they do. They produce their nuclear missiles, and one hour away from Bagram, and I said you can’t abandon Bagram,” Mr. Trump stated while speaking at the 2025 National Day of Prayer at the White House on Thursday.
“They relinquished Bagram, and currently, China occupies Bagram. So unfortunate, so insane. One of the largest air bases globally, with some of the most robust and longest runways anywhere, one hour away from where China manufactures its nuclear missiles,” Mr. Trump added.
Pointing fingers at the Joe Biden administration, Trump remarked, “You wouldn’t have witnessed the catastrophe in Afghanistan, which I believe is what gave (Russian President Vladimir) Putin the determination to intervene and do what he did because he observed how poorly we exited.
“We lost 13 soldiers, and 42 were severely wounded. Nobody ever acknowledges them, the legs, the arm, the arms, the face. Severely wounded, that would have never occurred. Not even conceivable to have occurred, and we would have been out before he departed,” Mr. Trump conveyed.
He seemed to be alluding to the Abbey Gate bombing on August 26, 2021, at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul that resulted in the deaths of 13 United States military personnel and roughly 160 civilians.
Trump has labeled the American withdrawal from Afghanistan under the Biden administration as “disastrous and incompetent.” “It wasn’t the fact that they were withdrawing, it was how they withdrew. Maybe the most humiliating moment in our nation’s history,” Trump had remarked in an address to the Joint Session of Congress earlier this year.
“It would have been fantastic to have while we were maintaining it, but they fled from there like no one could believe, and I think Putin saw that and he said, ‘Wow, this is a great opportunity. I can go seize it’ because it was the apple of his eye. I could always sense that. I conversed with him for hours. It was the apple of his eye, but I told him, ‘Vladimir, don’t even consider it’. And he wouldn’t have considered it. But when he observed that, I think that’s actually the reason why he gained some additional courage, and he went in,” Mr. Trump stated.
Bagram Airfield is positioned in Afghanistan’s Parwan Province, approximately 11 kilometers southeast of the city of Charikar and 47 kilometers north of Kabul. The airfield features an 11,800-foot runway capable of accommodating bomber and large cargo aircraft.
Published – May 03, 2025 05:50 pm IST
