From the State Department:  The United States will host back-to-back G8 and NATO Summits May 19-21, 2012, in Chicago.  The White House has the overall lead for summit planning through various working groups chaired by the National Security Staff.  

The Bureau of European Affairs (EUR) is pleased to announce the appointment of Robert F. Simmons as the Bureau’s Policy Coordinator for Summit Issues related to the NATO Summit in May, 2012.  In this role, Mr. Simmons will be the Department’s primary policy interlocutor with the NATO International Staff.  

From NATO:  Robert Simmons was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary General of NATO for Security Cooperation and Partnership in September 2003 [served until 2010]. As Deputy Assistant Secretary General, he is responsible for NATO-Russia and NATO Ukraine relations, Euro-Atlantic Integration and Partnership, and relations with other organisations, including the European Union. In addition, in September 2004, the Secretary General designated Mr Simmons as the Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Causasus and Central Asia.

Prior to joining the NATO International Staff, Mr. Simmons served as Senior Advisor to the United States Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs on NATO. As Senior Advisor, Mr Simmons played a significant role in developing U.S. policy on the full range of NATO and European security issues. He was the U.S. representative to the NATO Senior Politico Military Group on Proliferation (SGP) created by the 1999 Washington Summit WMD initiative and served on various NATO-Russia fora.

Prior to this assignment, Mr Simmons served as Deputy Director of the Office of Regional Political and Security Issues in the Bureau of European Affairs. During the period he was Deputy Director, he managed U.S. policy in connection with NATO, the OSCE, and European security architecture. The issues he covered included NATO enlargement; NATO adaptation, including the creation of EAPC and PfP; and the development of the role of the OSCE. Previously he was assigned as Deputy Political Advisor to the U.S. Mission to NATO and U.S. Representative to the NATO Political Committee.

Mr Simmons had served as the senior Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) Representative to the negotiations which resulted in the 1987 Treaty on the Elimination of U.S. and Soviet Intermediate Range Weapons (the INF Treaty) and was the U.S. chairman of the Verification Working Group. After the INF Treaty’s entry into force, he was the Deputy U.S. Representative to the Special Verification Commission created to implement the Treaty. Mr Simmons was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan in 1993-95. From 1980 to 1984, he was seconded to the NATO International Staff where he worked in the Disarmament and Arms Control Section of the Political Affairs Division.

Mr Simmons has received the U.S. State Department’s Superior Honor Award four times, and for his work on the INF Treaty he received ACDA’s Meritorious Honor Award.  

Robert Simmons is a member of the Atlantic Council.  (photo: NATO)

Image: nato%2011%2016%2011%20Robert%20F%20Simmons.jpg