US President Donald Trump has instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to review the process of retrieving American military equipment left in Afghanistan.
In his first cabinet meeting with the US Secretaries of Defense and State, Trump claimed that Afghanistan is one of the largest sellers of military equipment in the world.
The US President stated: “I think we should get a lot of that equipment back. I told Pete to study that but we left billions, tens of billions of dollars worth of equipment behind, brand new trucks you see them display it every year.”
Trump also stressed that he had intended to keep Bagram Air Base—not for Afghanistan, but due to its proximity to China; however, the Biden administration lost control of the base.
Regarding Bagram Air Base, Trump said: “We were going to get out but we were going to keep Bagram, not because of Afghanistan but because of China because it’s exactly one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles.”
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in the cabinet meeting, stated: “We’re doing a complete review of every single aspect of what happened with the botched withdrawal of Afghanistan and plan to have full accountability, it’s one of the first things we announced at the Defense Department.”
The interim government of Afghanistan has not yet reacted to this statement. However, a spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate previously dismissed the idea of retrieving US military equipment as unrealistic and also asserted that Bagram Air Base is not under the control of any foreign country.
“It is better to find a solution to these tensions through dialogue, understanding, and diplomacy, and the stance of the Islamic Emirate should also be political in this matter,” said Janat Fahim Chakari, a military analyst.
This is not the first time that the US president has spoken about the military equipment left in Afghanistan. He has previously said that continued US aid to Afghanistan is conditional on the return of these military assets.