US President Joe Biden is postponing his planned trip to Germany later this week due to the powerful Hurricane Milton, which is heading for the state of Florida, the White House announced on Tuesday.
A trip to Angola, which was to follow Biden's visit to Germany, has also been postponed, according to the White House.
No immediate information was provided about when the president, who leaves office in January, intends to make up the trips, but Biden said he would call German Chancellor Olaf Scholz later on Tuesday to discuss the change of plans.
"I'm going to be talking today with my friend, the chancellor of Germany, and we're going to try to work that out," Biden said during a short address on the hurricane at the White House.
"I'm still planning on visiting all the places I should be," the US president said.
Biden had been expected to arrive in Berlin on Thursday evening, where he was scheduled to meet Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The US president had planned to then travel to the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate on Saturday, where he was to host a Ukraine summit at the US air base in Ramstein.
Scholz said Biden's decision to postpone the trip was understandable.
"If such storms were raging in my country, I would make the same decision," he said in an interview with broadcaster RTL scheduled to be aired later on Tuesday.
German government spokesman Steffan Hebestreit said that the White House had informed Berlin in advance.
The German presidential office said Washington was hoping Biden would be able to make up the trip in the near future. Berlin was in talks with the US administration to find a suitable date, a spokeswoman said.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was delaying the trip "given the projected trajectory and strength of Hurricane Milton."
She said Biden would oversee preparations for the storm, as well as the ongoing recovery effort across the south-eastern United States from Hurricane Helene, which caused devastating damage and killed more than 200 people across six US states.
On Monday evening, Jean-Pierre said the president is very concerned about the path of Hurricane Milton, which appears to be headed for some of the same areas badly hit by Helene.
The US National Hurricane Center has warned that the storm "is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous hurricane through landfall in Florida."
The storm has weakened slightly in recent hours and is currently a Category 4 storm, with sustained wind speeds of about 230 kilometres per hour.
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