The United States is trying to regain access to the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump said on Thursday while addressing a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
During the nearly 20-year presence in Afghanistan, Bagram was the primary base for U.S. forces in the country. It was abandoned and fell into the hands of the Taliban when they returned to power in 2021.
“We’re trying to get it back,” Trump said, noting its strategic location near one of China’s nuclear installations. “We want that base back,” he said, adding the Taliban government “need things from us.”
During the press conference, occurring on the second day of a state visit to the U.K., the U.S. president also hailed America’s “unbreakable bond” with Britain. The two countries’ leaders inked a tech deal, boosting ties in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and nuclear energy.
At the signing ceremony attended by a host of U.S. tech CEOs, Starmer said he and Trump were “leaders who genuinely like each other.” He also maintained the deal was the “biggest investment package” of its kind in British history.
Under the deal, several U.S. tech giants such as Microsoft and Google have pledged £150 billion of investment into the U.K.