Obama to Bring G-8, NATO Summit to Chicago Next Year

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 22, 2011 6:00PM

Plan your spring vacations for 2012 now. (Or your political protests.) President Obama is set to announce in a White House address tonight on his plan to draw down the troops in Afghanistan that Chicago will host a NATO summit next May on that very war. The Sun-Times reports that Chicago will also host a G-8 economic summit. With Obama likely in the midst of a reelection campaign by then and with his campaign headquartered in town, it's all very convenient.

An Obama Administration official told the Sun-Times the summits “will provide President Obama with opportunity to continue his leadership of our most important security alliance, to fulfill commitments made by allied leaders in Lisbon in November 2010, and to sustain our joint work to revitalize NATO to prepare it to effectively meet challenges of the 21st century."