First Asia, now Europe. After a whirlwind tour of India, Indonesia, Korea, and Japan, President Obama is now in Lisbon, Portugal to meet with his Allied counterparts at the NATO Summit. While there, he will also attend the U.S.–European Union Summit.

NATO has a number of issues on its agenda for this Summit, including developing a plan to begin the gradual phase out of U.S. forces and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, approving a new Strategic Concept that forms the blueprint for future NATO operations, and discussing plans for a limited missile defense system for Europe.

In an opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune yesterday the president said about Europe:

“With no other region does the United States have such a close alignment of values, interests, capabilities and goals…. Neither Europe nor the United States can confront the challenges of our time without the other. These summits are thus an opportunity to deepen our cooperation even further and to ensure that NATO — the most successful alliance in human history — remains as relevant in this century as it was in the last.”

Do you agree with President Obama’s assertion that neither Europe nor the United States can confront today’s challenges without the either?