Bagram Air Base Photo: VCG

 The Afghan government has quickly responded to US President Donald Trump's claim that the US has been working to regain the facility, the Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, rejecting the idea of a renewed presence for the US military in the country, while left the door open for "political and economic relations," The New York Times reported on Friday. 

During a news conference on Thursday with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump said that his administration had been working to reclaim the Bagram Air Base, which US forces abandoned in 2021, according to the New York Times. 

"Without the US having any military presence in Afghanistan, both Afghanistan and the US need to engage with each other, and they can have political and economic relations based on mutual respect and shared interests," Zakir Jalaly, an Afghan foreign ministry official, said on social media, per The New York Times. 

"Afghans have never accepted the military presence of anyone throughout history," Jalaly was quoted as saying. "But for other kinds of engagement, all paths remain open for them." 

Other Afghan officials were less diplomatic. Muhajer Farahi, a deputy minister, posted part of a poem on X: "Those who once smashed their heads against the rocks with us, their minds have still not found peace." He ended his post with "Bagram, Afghanistan," per The New York Times. 

At the press conference on Thursday, Trump also claimed that his administration wants to take back Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, "not because of Afghanistan but because of China, because it's exactly one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles."

Asked by a reporter to comment on that and whether China thinks the US' approach of seeing Afghanistan as a military outpost against China makes this country once more the scene of the great power rivalry, "the grand chessboard" as they used to call, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that China respects Afghanistan's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and Afghanistan's future should rest in the hands of the Afghan people.

"Let me stress that stirring up tension and confrontation in the region will not be supported. We hope all parties will play a constructive role for regional peace and stability," Lin said at a regular press briefing. 

During his first presidential term, Trump pledged to fully withdraw US troops from Afghanistan by May 2021. After Joe Biden took office in January 2021, the US government completed the withdrawal on August 30 of the same year, officially ending nearly 20 years of military operations in Afghanistan, the Xinhua News Agency reported.