Trump bid to move embassy stalled
One of the issues with the location is that ‘ it was way too big for the US embassy’
Brussels, the European city Donald Trump labelled a ‘ hellhole,’ is picking a fight with the US president in an area close to his heart: realestate development.
The Belgian capital has taken action to block Washington’s plan to move the US embassy from its current downtown location near Russia’s mission to a bucolic neighbourhood adjacent an 11,000- acre forest on the city’s southern outskirts. The point of contention? The new building is too celebrated for what the Americans have planned for it.
The US government — which still doesn’t have an ambassador to either Belgium or the Brussels- based European Union — purchased the site in 2016, with the intention of tearing down the existing building because it doesn’t meet its size requirements or modern environmental standards.
On ‘ safeguard list’
But last year, the regional city government applied to have the building placed on a “safeguard list”, which would prevent any modification or destruction to the four- winged, copper- and glass- covered structure.
The building, which formerly housed the ‘ Royale Belge’ insurance company and more recently a local AXA SA outpost, “is part of the flagship herit- age of our region,” said Lidia Gervasi, spokeswoman to the regional minister responsible for monuments and sites. “For many people living in Brussels, it’s an icon of modern architecture of the 1960s.”
London’s ‘ bad deal’
And while the regional government has another year to make its formal decision, it intends to confirm the safeguard procedure and place the building on the monument list, Gervasi said.
Brussels is the world’s second- largest seat of diplomatic representations, hosting more than 200 embassies as well as the European institutions and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
The Belgian row adds to the controversies Washington is navigating at its international missions, with Trump earlier this year cancelling a visit to London to open a new embassy, saying the old site was sold for “peanuts” and the new building, in an “off location,” was a “bad deal.” Trump also complicated plans for Middle East peace talks last year when he said he’d move the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, jeopardising America’s role as a mediator in the region.
The Brussels- based realestate investment trust Cofinimmo SA sold the site to the US government on the condition Washington would get the proper licences and permits from the Brussels authorities. But the US State Department and Cofinimmo are still reviewing their options.