Rapid Fire
Bagram Airfield
- 07 May 2025
- 2 min read
The US President claimed that China now occupies the Bagram Airfield, which American forces had vacated before pulling out from Afghanistan in 2021.
- About Bagram Airfield: It is the largest air base in Afghanistan that lies some 60 km to the north of Kabul, in the strategic Parwan province.
- Parwan is key to controlling much of Afghanistan because the 2.6 km-long Salang tunnel in the Parwan province connects Kabul to Mazar-e-Sharif and other cities in the north, while highways provide linkages to Ghazni and Kandahar in the south, and Bamiyan to its west.
- Built by the Soviets in the 1950s, it became vital during the Cold War and the Soviet-Afghan War (1979–89).
- After 2001, it became the operational hub of US forces during the War on Terror.
- Bagram's strategic location makes it vital, and China’s growing Taliban ties signal a careful push to gain a strategic foothold in the region.
- Lop Nur in Xinjiang, where China tested its first atom bomb in 1964, lies 2,000 km from Bagram, while the Koko Nur nuclear weapons facility is located further east in Qinghai province, China.
| Read More: CPEC's Extension to Afghanistan |
