By Zachary Keck
U.S. President Barack Obama cancelled a visit to Malaysia next week because of the government shutdown in the United States, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.
There was no announcement of the cancellation on the White House’s website, although it (somewhat dramatically) has a banner on the top announcing that it may not be updated during the shutdown.
Fresh off his well-received UN General Assembly speech, Najib said that Obama had called to inform him that he would not be able to visit Kuala Lumpur a week from Friday as previously scheduled. The president said that his Secretary of State John Kerry would attend in his absence.
Obama would have been the first U.S. president to travel to Malaysia since 1966, when Lyndon B. Johnson visited. The report also noted that Obama cancelled two trips to Asia back in 2010; once to get his health care bill—which the shutdown is partially about—through Congress, and the second time because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Read the full story at The Diplomat