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U.S. President Barack Obama Friday touted “slow and steady progress” in the fight against ISIS militants as he committed to increasing aid to Jordan, The Daily Star reported.

The president made the comments in an Oval Office meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan, one of five Arab nations that have participated in U.S.-led airstrikes against the militants in Syria. Obama called Jordan a “rock solid partner” to defeat ISIS.

Obama said Jordan was a “small, resource-poor country that consistently steps up” to shoulder its international responsibility. He said he planned to ask Congress to nearly double U.S. annual assistance to Jordan from $660 million to $1 billion.

“The Jordanian military has been working side by side with U.S. and other militaries from around the world in making slow but steady progress, providing assistance to Baghdad, providing assistance to the moderate opposition inside of Syria and to begin culling back some of the gains that ISIS has made,” Obama said.

“We recognize that it’s a long-term and extremely complex challenge, but it’s one that we feel optimistic that we’ll be able to succeed in.”

Abdullah thanked the American people for supporting Jordan and said the country was hosting almost 1.5 million Syrian refugees. “It comes at a very difficult time,” he said.

Abdullah also said Jordan, the United States and other countries “had to combine our strategies” to combat ISIS, and that he believed it would be a “generational fight.”