Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Thursday to sell Afghan leaders and a wary public on President Joe Biden’s decision to pull out all remaining American troops by Sept. 11.

Speaking to reporters while standing alongside Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the US’ top diplomat said of the unannounced trip, “I wanted to demonstrate with my visit the ongoing to commitment of the United States to the Islamic Republic and the people of Afghanistan.”

“The partnership is changing, but the partnership itself is enduring.”

“We respect the decision and are adjusting our priorities,” Ghani told Blinken in response.

“Afghanistan’s proud security and defense forces are fully capable of defending its people and country, which they have been doing all along,” he also said.

Blinken traveled to Afghanistan from Brussels, where he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin briefed NATO officials on the decision.

The trip comes one day after the US commander-in-chief delivered a speech from the White House explaining his decision to withdraw by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“I’ve concluded it’s time to end America’s longest war. It’s time for American troops to come home,” Biden said Wednesday.

“I’m now the fourth United States president to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan: two Republicans, two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth.”

Biden, Blinken and Austin have all provided similar arguments in defense of the decision, primarily focused on the fact that the US had achieved its goal of bringing Osama bin Laden to justice and destroying al Qaeda, his terror network.

Critics of the move have cautioned that it could lead to the creation of a new ISIS, as President Barack Obama’s decision to withdraw from Iraq did in 2011.

For his part, Obama praised Biden’s decision in a statement Wednesday, saying it was “time to turn the page” on the nearly 20-year war.

“President Biden has made the right decision in completing the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan,” he said before thanking American veterans and service members.

“It has been a long and arduous struggle in Afghanistan, rooted in our response to the deadliest terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland in our history,” he continued. “American troops, diplomats, and development workers can take pride in their efforts to deliver justice for 9/11, destroy al Qaeda’s safe haven, train Afghan Security Forces, and support the people of Afghanistan.”

Other Democrats, however, have been split in their reaction.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI) expressed his concerns about the move, despite having already spoken to Austin.

“It’s a very difficult decision by the president. I think it was shaped by a number of factors. I think the agreement itself really gave the Taliban the green light that after May 1st we couldn’t be there any longer. So we inherited that [from the Trump administration],” he said.

When pressed on whether he supported Biden’s move, Reed declined to say.

“You know, there is no easy answer.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-NJ) told reporters he wanted “to hear the administration’s rationale for it.”

The top Democrat on the influential panel went on to say he understood the arguments for withdrawing, but still had considerable reservations.

On the progressive end, lawmakers like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) cheered the news of Biden’s troop withdrawal.

With Post wires