In a televised speech, President Obama made the announcement that many saw coming.
"Starting next month, we will be able to remove 10-thousand of our troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, and we will bring home a total of 33-thousand troops by next summer, fully recovering the surge I announced at West Point. After this initial reduction, our troops will continue coming home at a steady pace as Afghan security forces move into the lead. Our mission will change from combat to support. By 2014, this process of transition will be complete, and the Afghan people will be responsible for their own security."
Leaders around the world have quickly reacted to the news.
In Kabul, the move is welcomed by the Afghan Defense Ministry.
Spokesperson General Mohammad Zahir Azimi.
"We welcome the decision of President Obama and the American people on the withdrawal of a certain number of their troops from Afghanistan. The number and quality of Afghan National Army and its capacity has reached the level to take over the responsibility form the troops who leave Afghanistan."
Azimi also adds that Afghanistan needs the international community to provide equipment and other needs of the Afghan National Army during the transition period.
In Brussels, NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen also says he welcomes Obama's decision.
"This decision is the result of the progress we have made in Afghanistan and it follows close consultations with NATO allies and partners. The Taliban is under pressure everywhere, the Afghan security forces are getting stronger every day, and transition is on track to be completed in 2014, and that's why we can gradually adapt our presence in Afghanistan. But, beyond the end of our combat mission, we will still have a partnership with Afghanistan, a partnership that will endure."
The British Foreign Secretary William Hague echoes NATO's comment and says the two sides should think about future cooperation now.
"We will be friends for the long term with our expertise, with our economic cooperation and development aid and it is of course important to plan ahead for those things now."
Meanwhile, Australia's Prime Minister, Julia Gillard says her country's plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by 2014 is unchanged by Obama's plan.
"As recently as today, the Chief of the Defence Force has confirmed to me that those one-thousand five-hundred Australian personnel are required to acquit our mission in Uruzgan province and, in terms of the announcement from the United States, our work in Uruzgan province would continue in the same way."
Australia is the largest troop contributor to Afghanistan outside NATO.
For CRI, this is Zhao Yang.
