India joins Russia, China, Pakistan, others in opposing US bid to regain control of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan

New Delhi: India on Tuesday joined Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran and several other Central Asian nations in opposing United States President Donald Trump’s bid to take back control of the military base at Bagram in Afghanistan.

Even as its relations with Washington, D.C., of late came under stress, New Delhi lent its voice to the clamour against the US move to regain control of the Bagram Air Base near Kabul from the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan joined the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in terming as “unacceptable” the “attempts by countries to deploy their military infrastructure in Afghanistan and neighbouring states”, noting that such moves would “not serve the interests of regional peace and stability”.

The opposition to the US moves for regaining control of the military base in Bagram was recorded in a joint statement, which was released after the 7th meeting of the “Moscow Format Consultations” on Afghanistan was held in Moscow at the level of special representatives and senior officials.

New Delhi’s envoy to Moscow, Vinay Kumar, attended the meeting. The acting foreign minister of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, also participated in the meeting. Muttaqi will soon visit New Delhi.

The US had abandoned the Bagram Air Base while withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, setting the stage for the Taliban’s return to power in the country after two decades. Though it was during Trump’s first term in power that Washington, D.C., had inked the February 2020 agreement with the Taliban in Doha and thus set the stage for the Sunni Islamist organisation’s return to power in Kabul, he later blamed his successor, John Biden, for the chaotic withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan and giving up the control of the military complex in Bagram.

Trump recently said that his administration would take back control of the Bagram Air Base from the Taliban, who would need the support of the US. He pointed out that the military base was close to a nuclear weapon-making facility of China. He also warned the Taliban of “bad things” if it did not agree to give back the military facility to the US.

The Taliban regime in Kabul, however, rejected the US demand.