US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that US military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on August 31, days ahead of his original September 11 deadline. "In this context, speed is safety," Biden said in his remarks at the White House. "Conducting our drawdown differently would have certainly come with an increased risk of safety to our personnel." Biden in April ordered all US troops to leave Afghanistan before September 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that drew the US into its longest war, the Xinhua news agency reported.

In defending the withdrawal, he noted that the US military had achieved its counter-terrorism objectives in the 20-year war. "We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build," Biden added. "It's the right and the responsibility of the Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country." Biden reaffirmed that the US will continue providing support to the Afghan government and planned to move Afghan nationals who worked with US forces out of the country to wait for their US visa to be processed.