Following the reports of U.S. forces’ reduction from Afghanistan, the Presidential Palace on Friday said that the move would not affect the security in the war-weary country.

Fazl Fazly, a senior advisor to President Ashraf Ghani said that the Afghan government assumed full security responsibility at the end of 2014 after the departure of more than 100,000 U.S. troops from the country.

“Alarms raised about Afghanistan’s future in media were more rampant in Dec 2014. Most analysts believed that Afghanistan would collapse with the departure of more than 100,000 troops. But our brave defense & security forces proved these analysts wrong & defended the nation with great valor,” Fazly said in series of tweets.

He stressed that since the formation of the National Unity Government, the Afghan security forces have carried out the fight on the frontline and security of the entire country.  “Despite the overwhelming war, our national armed and air forces have strengthened day by day and they will grow in strength even more,” Fazly said.

The official noted that the reduction of the few thousand foreign forces-that are engaged to advise , train and assist the Afghan military forces – will not affect the security in Afghanistan.  

“If the few thousand foreign troops that advise, train & assist, leave it will not affect our security, in the past four & half years our security is completely in the hands of Afghans and the final goal is that ANDSF will stand on their feet to protect & defend soil on their own,” Fazly tweeted.

It comes after The New York Times reported that the Trump administration has ordered the military to start withdrawing roughly 7,000 troops from Afghanistan in the coming months, a move that stunned many Afghan officials.

The announcement came hours after Jim Mattis, the U.S. secretary of defense, said that he would resign from his position at the end of February after disagreeing with the president over his approach to policy in the Middle East including surprise decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.

The move to reduce U.S. military presence in Afghanistan from 14,000 to 7,000 troops comes Washington has recently stepped up diplomatic efforts to end the 17 years of war in Afghanistan.  U.S. envoy for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has met the Taliban representatives at least three times after taking over the charge in September.