US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has canceled his participation in important meetings on Ukraine and NATO due to health problems. Austin will not travel to Brussels this week as planned, a Pentagon spokesman said. According to the information, a meeting of the international contact group to coordinate weapons aid for Ukraine on Wednesday will now take place virtually. Austin will attend if he can. At the NATO defense ministers’ meeting on Thursday, he was represented by Ambassador Julianne Smith.
After another hospital stay, his doctors had predicted that Austin would probably be able to return to work this Tuesday. “We expect that the minister will be able to resume his normal duties tomorrow,” it said in a statement. According to the Pentagon, Austin was treated in the intensive care unit under general anesthesia for a bladder problem. “A longer hospital stay is not planned.”
The current bladder problem does not change his expected recovery, the doctors said. The prognosis for his prostate cancer remains excellent.
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During his absence, Austin’s deputy, Kathleen Hicks, was in charge of official business.
Austin was hospitalized twice in December and January after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He drew criticism because he did not initially inform the presidential office of both the diagnosis and his hospital stay. One of the duties of a US Secretary of Defense is to be available at all times in the event of a nuclear attack on the USA. There are three investigations underway against him and he is scheduled to testify before Congress on February 29th.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has canceled his participation in important meetings on Ukraine and NATO due to health problems. Austin will not travel to Brussels this week as planned, a Pentagon spokesman said. According to the information, a meeting of the international contact group to coordinate weapons aid for Ukraine on Wednesday will now take place virtually. Austin will attend if he can. At the NATO defense ministers’ meeting on Thursday, he was represented by Ambassador Julianne Smith.