US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cancels NATO trip after hospitalisation

Austin has been hospitalised in the critical care unit for complications from prostate cancer.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has cancelled his trip to Brussels to meet with NATO ministers and work on Ukraine military aid after being hospitalised with complications from prostate cancer, according to US officials.

Austin, 70, was taken to Walter Reed Military Medical Center on Sunday with “symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue”, the Pentagon said.

Austin was scheduled to travel to Brussels on Tuesday to attend a regular meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a group of about 50 countries, to coordinate military aid for Kyiv. That meeting will now be held virtually, two US defence officials told The Associated Press news agency on the condition of anonymity.

After the Ukraine meeting, Austin was to attend a regular meeting of NATO defence ministers, also in Brussels. It is not immediately clear if Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who Austin has transferred his duties to, will attend that meeting instead.

Austin had failed to disclose a prostate cancer surgery in December and a subsequent hospitalisation in January to deal with its complications. This month, the cabinet secretary apologised for failing to tell Biden and senior staff about his cancer diagnosis, adding that the health scare was a “gut punch” that had shaken him.