The NATO summit in Chicago is taking place not only in a presidential election year in the United States, but also in US President Barack Obama's hometown.

The Obama administration is, therefore, particularly interested in summit "deliverables" - outcomes that can be announced as great successes for its foreign policy.

Therefore, how much support, financial and otherwise, the Afghan National Security Forces will get from NATO partners; and an agreement on a "roadmap" for NATO's post-2014 role in Afghanistan are expected to be announced.

At the 2010 summit in Lisbon, NATO leaders agreed on a robust operation through the end of 2014 that would be followed with an indefinite training and support commitment to the Afghan security forces. But recent events in Afghanistan appear to have sparked a rush for the exits.

NATO has successfully cozied up to Pakistan as its president Asif Ali Zardari was present at the Chicago summit. It may indicate an improving relationship between Washington and Islamabad following the NATO air strike in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Obama's newly signed strategic agreement with Afghanistan ensures ongoing security support. But this requires a supporting military strategy, which NATO does not have.

The Lisbon declaration stressed the need for building partnerships with non-NATO members to increase alliance capabilities and Mongolia is attending the summit as part of the Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program for the first time. Thanks to its "third neighbor policy", Western nations can use the central Asian nation as a wedge between China and Russia.

NATO expects continued cooperation with Russia on Afghanistan, counter-piracy and other operations, but the missile system that the US has been pushing in Europe was sold to NATO as a joint system involving Russian participation. That hasn't materialized.

Now Russia is cooling its political relations with the US, with its President Vladimir Putin attending neither the G8 summit on May 18-19 at Camp David nor the NATO summit.

Russia has the very reason to be discontent with NATO, as the missile system will be deployed right on its doorstep, and there is little evidence that the US views its relationship with Russia as one of equal partners.

Despite all the pomp and circumstance in Chicago, the absence of Putin is a sign of the failure to secure Russia's cooperation on the missile system. In that sense, this conference can't end on a note of optimism for the Obama administration.