The United States is trying to get Bagram air base in Afghanistan back, President Donald Trump said on Thursday during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n
Trump is on an official state visit to the UK \u2014 his second state trip to Britain \u2014 where he signed a technology agreement with Starmer earlier today.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get it back,\u201d Trump said, referring to Bagram. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the biggest airbases in the world; we gave it to them for nothing. We\u2019re trying to get it back.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the reasons we want the base, as you know, is it\u2019s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bagram Air Base served as the linchpin for US operations in the rugged country, where the long war against the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies was fought with air strikes and resupply missions from the airfield.<\/p>\n
The historic Soviet-built airstrip was the main base for American forces in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks, up until their 2021 withdrawal, which led to a takeover by the Afghan Taliban.<\/p>\n
In July 2021, all US and Nato troops left Afghanistan\u2019s biggest air base, signalling the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from the country after two decades of war.<\/p>\n
A week after the US withdrawal, Bagram buzzed again with activity as Afghan forces settled into the vast premises, complete with its runways, barracks, control towers and hospital.<\/p>\n
Trump, Starmer sign tech deal to seal \u2018unbreakable bond\u2019
\nBefore the joint presser, Trump and Starmer signed a huge tech deal, which the British PM hailed as \u201cthe biggest investment package of its kind in British history by a country mile\u201d.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s work in wooing the unpredictable Trump on his second state visit seemed to have paid off as he and Starmer signed the partnership, boosting ties in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and nuclear energy.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) and US President Donald Trump (L) shake hands as the pair sign a tech deal at Chequers, in Aylesbury, central England, on September 18. \u2014 AFP
\nTrump said the deal was \u201cvery big\u201d, and added of US relations with key Nato ally Britain that, \u201cIt\u2019s an unbreakable bond we have regardless of what we\u2019re doing today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deal comes on the back of pledges of \u00a3150 billion ($205bn) of investment into the UK from American giants, including Microsoft, Google and Blackstone.<\/p>\n
Trump disagrees with UK on recognising Palestinian state
\nContinuing the press conference, Trump said he disagreed with Starmer over recognising a Palestinian state, speaking following their bilateral meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a disagreement with the prime minister on that score, one of our few disagreements, actually,\u201d Trump said in response to a question during the press conference.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Starmer said he and Trump agreed on the ultimate aim of peace in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe absolutely agree on the need for peace and a road map, because the situation in Gaza is intolerable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer hold a press conference at Chequers in Aylesbury, England on September 18. \u2014 Reuters
\nWhen pressed about reports he was waiting for Trump to leave the country before formally recognising a Palestinian state this weekend, Starmer said: \u201cI made my position clear at the end of July as to the timing, which has got nothing to do with this state visit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve discussed it with the president, as you would expect, amongst two leaders who respect each other and like each other and want to bring about a better solution in the best way that we can,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States is trying to get Bagram air base in Afghanistan back, President Donald Trump said on Thursday during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump is on an official state visit to the UK \u2014 his second state trip to Britain \u2014 where he signed a technology agreement with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12057,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12055\/revisions\/12057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}