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Back in late October, before the U.S. presidential primaries kicked into high gear, Belgian Ambassador Jean-Arthur Regibeau visited Atlanta with his Swiss counterpart to talk apprenticeships and highlight the small German-speaking community in his country.
Beyond those relatively benign topics, however, the ambassador weighed in during multiple forums on issues of global security, particularly around the NATO alliance and the war in Ukraine.
In the ensuing months, his diagnoses have turned out to be prescient.
While NATO is an alliance of 31 individual states, 22 of them are situated in the European Union, and Mr. Regibeau said that the strengthening of the transatlantic military alliance should not preclude the EU stepping up and taking more responsibility for its security, as leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron have advocated.
“(Belgium’s) motto is a strong Europe within a strong NATO. We believe the stronger Europe is, the stronger NATO will be, and we want a strong transatlantic relationship. I must say we are quite happy with the current state of affairs, especially after the start of the war in Ukraine. There is a real closeness between the two sides of the Atlantic and consensus across the board that we have to stick together,” Mr. Regibeau said during an interview.
Mr. Macron, who once famously called NATO “brain-dead,” is given to tough words, Mr. Regibeau said, but hand-wringing in Washington over such comments is “because the Americans don’t understand the French.”
“The French like to use a somewhat different rhetoric, but in the depths of their minds and hearts, they know that they have no better options than the transatlantic relationship,” said Mr. Regibeau, who said that position is where Europe always tends to land.
“‘I’m just a bit surprised about the level of French-bashing sometimes in Washington. My own interpretation is that Americans and French are so much alike, so it can only come to such a clash, because they both defend their version of universal values, each of them believing to be the center of the world,” he said.
Mr. Macron this week caused another stir by refusing to rule out the presence of NATO or European troops on the ground in Ukraine, an assertion a spokesperson for the French president later clarified referred to training and advisory roles, not combat troops. Russian leader Vladimir Putin threatened in an annual address that such a deployment risked starting a nuclear war.
More than in Europe, where Hungary has been a constant threat to European initiatives aimed at funding Ukraine and expanding NATO, Mr. Regibeau said he was worried about flagging support for the war in the United States.
“I would be more concerned about the discussions going in the U.S. Congress, but here we are quite active,” Mr. Regibeau told Global Atlanta. “We clearly want to convince the American congressmen and women that giving up on supporting Ukraine would be a very bad decision, not just for Ukraine, not just for Europe, but for America itself.”
Again, Mr. Regibeau’s concerns were proven prescient. The Republican-led House has failed to vote on a $95 billion aid package that cleared the Senate Feb. 13, with some $60 billion allocated for Ukraine. Hungary, meanwhile, approved Sweden’s bid to join NATO, and the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion came and went with Republican legislators questioning whether to continue backing Ukraine. Many seem worried about the ire of former president and Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who set off alarm bells in Europe when he said Feb. 10 he would invite Putin to “do whatever the hell he wants” with countries that don’t meet NATO defense spending thresholds.
Thoughtful discussion at Belgium’s long-standing partner the @CarterCenter and hear about all the work they are doing in the US and globally to prevent conflicts, protect human rights, promote democracy and ensure free and fair elections. #CarterCenter pic.twitter.com/c9ndjUiVKx
— Ambassador Jean-Arthur Régibeau (@BEAmbUSA) October 27, 2023
The U.S., Mr. Regibeau said, can’t afford to go it alone in what he called a “multipolar world,” where emerging powers are eschewing traditional alliances, challenging the Western-led order and becoming their own poles of influence.
“To us, the multipolar world is a fact,” Mr. Regibeau said, having given a speech on the topic at Georgia Tech earlier in the day. “When some people want to say that the world is unipolar, I’m sorry, they’re just blind — you just have to allow for looking at the reality. Othwerise, you’re blind to security threats.”
Beyond China, Europe and the U.S., growing poles influence in his view include India, the continent of Africa and Brazil, the strongest power in Latin America. In a key election year around the world, the U.S. and Europe must try to understand countries that are governed as democracies but are nonetheless charting independent foreign policies. Neither India, Brazil nor South Africa — all members of the so-called BRICS group — have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Regibeau’s visit came a few months before the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo was slated to visit Atlanta. While he was waylaid by European defense negotiations, a delegation from the tech association Agoria brought 60 companies to the city. Another group of about 15 companies from the province of West Flanders visited the Southeast U.S. in November.
With Georgia already one of the largest recipients of Belgian investment, to the tune of some 100 companies, Atlanta has become somewhat of a household name since a trade mission led by Princess Astrid graced the city in 2022.
“I think Atlanta is so prominently present everywhere in Belgium right now,” said Consul General Michel Gerebtzoff. “When people think, where should I bring companies? It’s Atlanta, obviously.”
Mr. Regibeau said his meetings with companies — he mentioned Solvay, Barco and UCB in a post on X —underscored the Belgian success story here.
They’re quite happy with their investments here and have plans to further develop,” he said. “Really our job is to promote trade, but in both directions. We also like to see Americans coming to our to Belgium to invest as well, and so there is a strong relationship between the two states.”
The ambassador also met with the Carter Center and spoke at a joint event with Swiss Ambassador Jacques Pitteloud at the World Affairs Council of Atlanta.
Mr. Regibeau said he has visited 15-20 states in his three years as ambassador, fulfilling a need to get out of the nation’s capital and understand conditions on the ground in places like Atlanta.
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