Following their visit to China, a group of US senators led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have cancelled their trip to South Korea and Japan, Washington’s embassy in Tokyo said on Tuesday.
In a press release, the embassy said, “Due to external events, the delegation’s trip to Japan has been canceled.”
The delegation was scheduled on Sunday to hold a press conference in Tokyo.
They were preparing to visit Japan and South Korea following their meeting with Xi Jinping, the President of China, on Monday.
A spokesman for the embassy told AFP that the South Korea visit had also been cancelled, but refused to elaborate on the details of the “external events.”
The cancellation of the trip comes after the US said 11 Americans were dead and others are probably being held hostage by the Palestinian militant group Hamas after its surprise invasion of Israel.
Chuck Schumer is the current high-level US official to visit China as Washington aims to lessen tensions with Beijing, which have flared in recent years over everything from trade to human rights.
Last week on a social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Schumer said that their trip “will focus on the issues of economic competition and security, American national security, and global leadership in advanced technology.”
