Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (right) delivers remarks beside President Joe Biden to Department of Defense personnel, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Feb. 10, told lawmakers Tuesday that the United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan is ahead of schedule. File photo by Michael Reynolds/UPI
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin, shown here at Resolute Support Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 21, told lawmakers Thursday the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan is happening slightly ahead of schedule. File photo by Lisa Ferdinando/DoD/UPI
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, shown here during his Jan. 19 confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., told lawmakers Tuesday that the United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan is ahead of schedule. Pool Photo by Greg Nash/UPI
U.S. Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin, shown here at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem April 12, told lawmakers Tuesday that the United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan is ahead of schedule. File photo by Menahem Kahana/UPI
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, shown fist bumping Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost in March, told lawmakers Thursday that the removal of troops from Afghanistan is slightly ahead of schedule. File photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
May 27 (UPI) -- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers Thursday that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is running slightly ahead of schedule.
"I can report to you today that the retrograde is proceeding on pace, indeed slightly ahead of it," Austin told the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense before a hearing on the $715 billion Pentagon budget being released Friday.
He did not offer further detail on the drawdown, but his announcement echoed a report a report from the Pentagon Tuesday that the drawdown is "somewhere between 16% and 25% complete."
Pentagon press secretary told reporters that the United States will continue to have a presence in the Central Command area of responsibility, and will continue to have a diplomatic relationship with Afghanistan.
"Our relationship with Afghan National Defense and Security Forces will continue, but it will continue in a different way."
In mid-April President Joe Biden announced plans to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that sparked the war, and the drawdown began later that month.