White House to Host Group of 8 Meeting at Camp David President Obama has boasted for months about hosting the annual summit of the Group of 8 industrialized nations this May in his hometown of Chicago, but on Monday, the White House without explanation announced a shift to the secluded setting of the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. Administration officials and associates, speaking only on the condition of anonymity, said the president in recent weeks began discussing the idea of a more intimate setting for the world leaders - both to ease their communications and to cut down on the security concerns and traffic tie-ups of a big-city summit. Also, several noted, Vladimir V. Putin, a harsh critic of the United States who returns to the presidency of Russia after his election on Sunday, will be among the attendees. "To facilitate a free-flowing discussion with our close G-8 partners, the president is inviting his fellow G-8 leaders to Camp David on May 18 to 19 for the G-8 Summit, which will address a broad range of economic, political and security issues," the brief White House statement said. Still, the change of location was unusual given the months-long lead time that such events require for preparation. Administration officials and others denied that the prospect of the anti-globalization protests common to such gatherings was a factor in the decision to change locations. After the Group of 8 summit, the separate summit of 28 NATO countries and Russia will go on as planned in Chicago, where leaders will discuss the future of the Atlantic alliance and specifically the coalition's exit from Afghanistan by 2014 and the size and makeup of any residual force there. After it was determined in December 2010 that the United States would host the Group of 8 and NATO summits, the Obama administration announced within months that Chicago would be the site. The idea was less Mr. Obama's than it was that of Rahm Emanuel, then the White House chief of staff and now the mayor of Chicago. In a statement, Mr. Emanuel emphasized that Chicago would still entertain the NATO heads of state. "We wish President Obama and the other leaders well at the G-8 meeting at Camp David and look forward to hosting the NATO summit in Chicago," he said in the statement. Hosting the NATO summit (still) is a tremendous opportunity to showcase Chicago to the world and the world to Chicago. The Group of 8, which includes France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Japan, Canada and Russia, is increasingly seen as a less-effective forum for deliberations on the global economy and security at a time when other nations - among them China, India and Brazil - have become global powers in their own right. That has given rise to an expanded Group of 20. While the NATO alliance was formed after World War II as a defense against military expansion by the former Soviet Union, Russia has had a role in the group since 1997; since 2002, it has been a partner in the NATO-Russia Council. Last June, in announcing Chicago as the host city for the back-to-back summits, an administration official told reporters, "We felt it was important to explore options beyond Washington because often you have these things in the capital city." The Obama administration, the official added, wanted "to highlight other parts of America that represent the character of our people and that can make for interesting venues." Camp David is about an hour from Washington and open only to the president and people he invites there.