Ramstein meeting on Ukraine up in air after Biden cancels trip to Germany
World
Ramstein meeting on Ukraine up in air after Biden cancels trip to Germany
WASHINGTON/BERLIN (Reuters) - US President Joe Biden canceled his upcoming trip to Germany and Angola on Tuesday in a blow to plans for the highest level meeting ever of the Ramstein group of Ukraine arms donors that aimed to underscore unwavering support for Kyiv.
The Ramstein group was set to meet at the highest level on the sidelines of Biden's Oct. 10-13 state visit to Germany, which would have been the first US state visit in nearly 40 years.
But the White House said Biden was postponing his trip to both Germany and Angola to handle preparations for Hurricane Milton and relief efforts after Hurricane Helene which last month killed more than 200 people.
It added that it was still working on how the Ramstein event would work out, with Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz talking later on Tuesday.
"I just don't think I can be out of the country at this time," Biden said, adding that he hoped to reschedule the trip "and all the conferences I said I'd participate in".
The administration's response to Hurricane Helene, the deadliest named storm to hit the mainland U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, has already become a point of contention in a tight race ahead of November's presidential election.
Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats' presidential nominee, have come under fire from Republican challenger and former President Donald Trump for not immediately surveying damage on the ground - though they made clear they didn't want to cause a distraction.
Palestinians held a funeral on Tuesday for more than 15 killed in an Israeli attack,
Scholz said he would have made the same decision if storms were bearing down on Germany but hoped to reschedule the state visit which would have been a "very important meeting".
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had been underscoring for weeks the importance of the Ramstein meeting for Ukraine and the future course of the war. In his nightly video address on Tuesday, Zelenskiy made no mention of the meeting or Biden's announcement that he would not attend.
