President Barack Obama will host the Group of Eight and NATO summits this weekend, focusing on the international issues including the eurozone crisis and Afghan War.
The president's high-level international meetings will kick off Friday, as he hosts the G8 at Camp David, the first foreign leaders to be invited to the presidential retreat since Obama took office.
The heads of state of France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada will discuss a variety of issues facing their countries with the president.
But issue number one on the leaders' minds is the European economy and the possibly imminent exit of Greece from the eurozone. On Friday morning, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel continued to press Greece to stay in the zone, making calls to caretaker president Karolos Papoulias urging him to stay in the euro while living up to international obligations.
"This is the first opportunity for the leaders of the major developed economies to meet face to face since...the political events in Greece," National Security Council Advisor Tom Donilon told reporters Thursday. "Obviously, this comes at a very delicate time with respect to the European economy, the eurozone economy."
After just two days at Camp David, Obama and most of the G8 leaders will head to Chicago to attend the NATO conference Sunday and Monday. This is the third time the U.S. has hosted the treaty group, and police have prepared for widespread protests and possible violence this weekend.
Because the top issue at the NATO conference will be the U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan, President Obama's first meeting will be with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai on Sunday morning. Obama has no plans to meet bilaterally with his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, at the summit.
The focus of Monday's broader meetings will also be the fate of the Central Asian country.
"On Monday morning, the summit will continue...with discussions on Afghanistan. And this will be a broader meeting; this will be the NATO countries plus the 22 non-NATO troop-contributing countries in Afghanistan," Donilon said.
The issue could prove to be a contentious one, as multiple European allies and partners including Italy, the U.K. and France have discussed pulling out their troops from the conflict. On Friday, Obama will meet new French President Francois Hollande. Hollande pledged to withdraw all French troops by the end of 2012, against NATO commitments to get "in together, out together" in 2014.
When asked whether the U.S. expected Hollande to keep his campaign commitment to pull out French troops, Donilon said, "He'll have to make his national decision with respect to that...But we would look to an ally to make those decisions in the context of the overall Lisbon framework."
"We would look to allies to make their national decisions in the context of the overall alliance approach, which has us in as ISAF until the end of 2014...Despite the national decision you might make about pace of withdrawal or timing of withdrawal, that you are a member of the alliance, an all-in, kind in together and out together as an alliance in a general fashion."
On the ground, Chicago law enforcement will face a daunting task of their own - controlling the thousands of protesters scheduled to begin arriving in the city on Friday. Led by National Nurses United, a California-based nurses association, the protest will also involve other groups such as the Occupy movement.
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