The head of NATO says the U.S. decision to pull one-third its soldiers out of Afghanistan by the end of next year is the "natural result" of the progress seen on the ground.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday that "the tide is turning" in Afghanistan, as government security forces grow stronger and the Taliban finds itself under increasing pressure.

Fogh Rasmussen also said Afghanistan will be ready to handle its security needs by 2014, at which point NATO and other foreign forces plan to exit the war-torn country.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that 10,000 American troops would be return home by the end of the year, followed by another 20,000-plus soldiers by September 2012.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has since confirmed that troops from his own country will exit Afghanistan on a timetable matching the U.S. troop pullout.

Sarkozy issued a statement Thursday saying that 4,000 French troops stationed in Afghanistan will gradually withdraw "in a proportional manner comparable to the withdrawal of American troops."

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle welcomed the U.S. plan to reduce its military footprint in Afghanistan, saying that Berlin intends to decrease its own troop presence there. But no decision has been reached on how the 4,900 German troops will be brought home.

Obama under public pressure to withdraw troops

Obama is calling some of the U.S. troops home at a time when the American public is growing increasingly weary of supporting the war that has dragged on for nearly a decade.

When Obama announced his troop withdrawal plans on Wednesday night, he suggested that America has accomplished its long-term goal of disabling and dismantling al Qaeda's deadly capabilities.

"We have put al Qaeda on a path to defeat, and we will not relent until the job is done," Obama said.

Scott Taylor, the editor of Esprit de Corps magazine, said the U.S. president has gained political capital after announcing the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden last month. And that has given him an opportunity to claw back the U.S. commitment on the ground.

"I think if Osama bin Laden hadn't been killed, there's no way he can be making this speech and this statement right now," Taylor told CTV's Canada AM from Ottawa on Thursday morning.

But even with the recall of so many troops from Afghanistan, America will still have some 70,000 soldiers stationed in the country at the end of next year.

As Obama said in his Wednesday night address, the immediate pullout of 33,000 troops "is the beginning -- but not the end -- of our effort to wind down this war."

With files from The Associated Press