U.S. President Barack Obama says the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will be conducted at a “steady pace” to make sure gains made there are sustained.

Speaking to troops at Fort Drum in upstate New York Thursday, President Obama said the United States has “turned a corner in Afghanistan” and is not going to withdraw troops very fast.

The president said even as the U.S. brings out 33,000 troops by September of next year, there is still fighting to be done. He noted that 68,000 American troops will stay in Afghanistan as the U.S. works to fully transfer security responsibility to Afghan forces.

Mr. Obama was addressing soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, many of them combat veterans in Afghanistan.

His visit came one day after he announced his withdrawal plans in a speech broadcast nationwide.

In Washington Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said much progress has been made in Afghanistan through the increased presence of U.S. military, civilian and diplomatic personnel. She told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the U.S. military surge in 2009 has increased pressure on al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents.

In an interview with VOA Wednesday, Mr. Obama said the United States is not abandoning Afghanistan by withdrawing troops. He said U.S. forces will still have a major presence in the country.

In his speech, President Obama promised the American people that troop withdrawals should be complete by 2014. The Afghan war, now nearly 10 years old, has become increasingly unpopular with the American public.

About 100,000 American troops are serving in Afghanistan. At least 1,500 have been killed there since the start of the war in 2001. The United States spends more than $110 billion a year on the conflict.