U.S. President Donald Trump is in the “process of evaluating” whether to withdraw some troops from Afghanistan, said Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence’s remarks came amid reports that Trump had ordered the Pentagon to prepare for the withdrawal of 7,000 American troops deployed in Afghanistan, about half of the U.S. contingent in the country.

“Why isn’t Russia there? Why isn’t India there? Why isn’t Pakistan there?” Trump said in televised comments to reporters during a cabinet meeting on January 2.

Pence also said the U.S. military withdrawal from Syria will be conducted in an “orderly fashion”.

He backed Trump’s planned pullout of some 2,000 American troops from Syria, saying the “reality is we have defeated” the Islamic State extremist group.

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