Ukraine summit in Germany delayed after Biden postpones trip

A high-level meeting on Ukraine at a US air base in Germany planned for Saturday has been postponed after President Joe Biden cancelled his participation due to Hurricane Milton, the US command at the base in Ramstein said on Wednesday.

Announcements on further meetings of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group - a United States-led body soon to be absorbed into NATO - would follow shortly, the command said.

The postponement of the Ukraine summit comes as no surprise as Biden had been scheduled to host the meeting but decided on Tuesday that he could not come to Germany, while also cancelling a subsequent trip to Angola.

Biden's administration has expressed grave concern about the hurricane, a powerful storm which appears to be headed for areas of the US including Florida which recently suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Helene.

The US president had been expected to arrive in Berlin on Thursday evening, where he was scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Biden had planned to then travel to the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate for the summit at the US airbase in Ramstein.

German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit confirmed that the Ukraine summit planned for Saturday would not take place.

A separate meeting set to be attended by Scholz and Biden as well as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday had also been cancelled, Hebestreit added.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who had been scheduled to accompany the president on his trip, will also no longer travel to Germany.