U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders are set to
address a host of pressing economic and military security issues this
weekend as the United States hosts a high stakes Group of Eight summit
outside Washington and a NATO summit in Obama's adopted hometown of
Chicago.
The three-day diplomatic
marathon kicked off Friday morning with remarks by Obama on the rising
concern over global food security. Obama outlined a new international
effort to address hunger in Africa and elsewhere, calling it a moral,
economic and security imperative.
The failure to adequately address the issue is "an affront to who we are," he declared.
Obama also met at the
White House on Friday with new French President Francois Hollande, who
was elected on a platform opposing increasingly unpopular eurozone
austerity measures.
"Much of our discussion
centered on the situation in the eurozone," Obama noted. "President
Hollande and I agree that this is an issue of extraordinary importance
not only to the people of Europe but also to the world economy."
Leaders of most of the G8
-- made up of the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany,
Japan, Italy, Canada and Russia -- were meeting later Friday and
Saturday at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. Debate is
expected to focus on whether an economically weakened, debt-laden Europe
should continue down the road of austerity trumpeted by German
Chancellor Angela Merkel or focus more on economic stimulus to help the
continent grow its way out of the current crisis.
Hanging over the
deliberations is the fate of economically battered Greece, which has
been unable to form a new elected government. Many analysts believe that
Athens will be forced to exit the euro currency shortly, which could
further rattle global economic confidence.
"Greece must stay in the
eurozone," Hollande insisted during his meeting with Obama. We all
"must do what we can to that effect."
The G8 leaders are also
expected to discuss the standoff over Iran's nuclear program and the
bloody conflict in Syria, where at least 9,000 people have died over the
past 14 months, according to United Nations estimates. In recent days,
violence has spilled over into Lebanon and Turkey, where thousands of
Syrians have fled.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin will not attend the G8 meeting, which makes significant
progress on either Syria or Iran unlikely. Russia has been at odds with
the United States and other G8 countries over exactly how hard to crack
down on Damascus and Tehran.
Later this weekend, the
war in Afghanistan is expected to dominate discussions at the NATO
summit. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif
Zardari are both expected to attend the meeting.
NATO leaders are currently on a timetable to withdraw all of the alliance's combat troops from Afghanistan in 2014.
One of the key issues to
be discussed in Chicago is who will pay to build up Afghan security
forces during and after the NATO drawdown. Afghan national security
forces should total around 350,000 by 2015, according to CNN National
Security Analyst Peter Bergen. Karzai's government can afford to cover
only a fraction of the cost, which is expected to total roughly $4
billion annually after 2014, Bergen notes.Read More
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