Published on: September 26, 2025 1:53 AM

Bagram Air Base has always been more than concrete and tarmac. It is a map pin where multiple strategic stories intersect. Soviet-era power projection, the American-led post-9/11 wars, the Taliban’s takeover, and now tri-nation contentions for it amongst the USA, China, and Russia, make Bagram Air Base a continuing focal point of shifting global rivalries and a symbol of how Afghanistan remains central to regional and great powers’ strategy. Its runway length, elevation, and location in Parwan province are of strategic significance, being wedged between South and Central Asia and one mountain chain away from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China which sits at the crossroads of Central Asian Republics, Mongolia, Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Beijing’s interest in integrating Afghanistan into the Belt and Road and CPEC extensions, is likely to drive its support to Kabul’s rejection of any foreign base, invoking sovereignty.

Originally built by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and used as a principal hub during its 1980s occupation, Bagram Air Base was later transformed by the United States after 2001 into a vast, flight-line neighbourhood complex. By 2006, the USA had rebuilt it with an 11,500-foot runway and extensive facilities like housing, a hospital, and a detention centre at a cost of about USD 68 million, enabling heavy airlift and high-frequency operations. For the next two decades, it was to serve as a central platform for intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance (ISR), close air support, medevac operations and strategic logistics, effectively becoming the heart of the USA’s campaign in........

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