■ President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure deal faced new uncertainty.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday promised Afghanistan’s top leaders a “sustained” partnership even as he moves to accelerate winding down the United States’ longest war amid escalating Taliban violence.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, chair of the High Council for National Reconciliation, met at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before their sit-down with Biden at the White House later in the afternoon.

While Biden vowed that the U.S. was committed to assisting Afghanistan, he also insisted that it was time for U.S. military to step back.

“Afghans are going to have to decide their future,” Biden said in brief remarks with the leaders before reporters at the start of his meeting with the Afghan leaders. Biden did not elaborate on what a “sustained” partnership might entail.

The leaders’ visit to Washington comes as the Biden administration has stepped up plans for withdrawal ahead of the president’s Sept. 11 deadline to end a nearly 20-year-old war that has come with a breathtakingly enormous cost.

Ghani also paid a visit on his own Friday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and with House Republican lawmakers. He met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell on Thursday.

Roughly 650 U.S. troops are expected to remain in Afghanistan to provide security for diplomats after the main American military force completes its withdrawal, which is set to be largely done in the next two weeks, U.S. officials have told The Associated Press.