Angola Biden postpones trip to Germany due to hurricane "Milton"

US President Joe Biden is postponing his planned trip to Germany from Thursday due to Hurricane Milton, which is heading for the state of Florida. This was announced by the White House. The trip to Angola following the visit to Germany will also be postponed. The US government gave no details as to when Biden, whose term of office ends in January, intends to make up for the trips.

German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit regretted the postponement of the visit. However, the German government "naturally understands the situation in Florida", he told the German Press Agency. "The White House informed us in advance."

Biden had planned an extensive program in Germany

Biden had actually planned to land in Germany late on Thursday evening. It would have been Biden's first bilateral visit to Germany in his almost four years in office. Among other things, meetings with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) were planned in Berlin. On Saturday, Biden then planned to travel on to Rhineland-Palatinate.

A Ukraine summit, to which Biden had invited, was to take place at the US airbase in Ramstein. Around 50 NATO member states and other allies of Ukraine were to take part in the meeting, partly at the level of heads of state and government. Following the visit to Germany, the US President was scheduled to travel on to Angola in southwest Africa.

Cancellation already foreshadowed

The question of whether Biden was considering postponing his plans due to the hurricane had already arisen at the daily press conference at the White House on Monday. His spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre had given an evasive answer. Biden had recently come under pressure for his handling of Hurricane Helene. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had accused the Democrat and his running mate Kamala Harris of not doing enough for the storm victims. Harris is running against Trump in the presidential election on November 5.

The cancellation of the trip to Germany is not Biden's first change of plans due to pressing problems in the USA. Around a year and a half ago, he canceled a planned trip to Papua New Guinea and Australia due to the debt dispute in the US Congress.

Florida just hit by "Helene"

"Milton" is the second dangerous hurricane to hit the USA in a very short space of time. Just a week and a half after the arrival of the deadly hurricane "Helene" on the west coast of Florida, "Milton" gained strength in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and was temporarily upgraded to a hurricane of the highest category. According to meteorologists, "Milton" is expected to lose strength again - but will still hit the west coast of Florida on Wednesday with wind speeds of around 200 kilometers per hour.

Florida is still struggling with the damage caused by "Helene". The storm made landfall as a second-highest category hurricane in northwest Florida. It then weakened, but caused severe flooding and destruction on its way north. Well over 200 people in six states lost their lives.

SDA