Politico | How Putin could jam up Biden’s post-Afghanistan plans
- US looks at basing troops in Central Asia to help secure Kabul
- But Moscow is working to complicate the US withdrawal
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Lara Seligman on politico.com on July 6, 2021.
The Biden administration has in recent weeks quietly engaged Central Asian governments in the hope of using one or more of the countries as bases after the withdrawal is complete. The US has two main requests: a staging post for keeping an eye on terrorist activity in Afghanistan, and temporarily hosting thousands of Afghans seeking visas.
But Moscow could use its significant economic and military influence in the region to jam up those plans, US officials and experts say.
The dual questions of how to continue fighting terrorists and safeguard Afghans who worked with American forces after the US withdrawal became more urgent on Friday, as the last US troops left Bagram airbase, the largest military base in Afghanistan and the hub of the US war there for nearly two decades. As of Tuesday, the US military had completed 90 per cent of the withdrawal, according to US Central Command.
The proposal was on the agenda on Thursday, when Secretary of State Antony Blinken met at the State Department with his counterparts from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the two most likely of the six Central Asian countries US military planners are eying for the scheme, according to a congressional source. Both border Afghanistan and would allow for quicker access to the country than existing US bases in the Middle East and aircraft carriers hundreds of miles away in the Persian Gulf.