U.K. consul general: As trade partner, foreign investor, Twin Cities equal to Chicago

Britain will be just fine as it exits the European Union, and the nation wants to do more business with Minnesota, the U.K.'s top diplomat in the Midwest said in Minneapolis.

"The numbers will not tell the story about how significant the U.K. and Minnesota-Minneapolis link is," Stephen Bridges, the British consul general in Chicago, said. "3M are enormous in the U.K. Cargill are really important. Target, General Mills — look at the banks. And let's not kid ourselves that Wells Fargo is a California bank. It's canny Midwesterners from Minnesota that drive it."

Bridges said the U.K.'s new trade office in Minneapolis, which he requested a year ago, should open by the end of 2016.

Speaking to a Minnesota Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday, he said that several large multinationals have demonstrated confidence in the U.K. by announcing hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment over the past couple weeks.

"For the last five or six years, Britain has been the only viable growing economy in Europe," he said.

Yes, he said, some manufacturing supply chains will be disrupted by the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union, and banks are moving employees to the continent.

But he rejected the idea that London will lose its place as a center of global finance, and sought to reassure listeners that Britain will remain engaged with Europe and committed to its relationship with its largest trade partner, the United States.

He said he has learned in his three years serving as consul general in Chicago that Minnesota is a crucial partner for his country — more in terms of investment in Britain than as an export market.

"The scale and the level of foreign direct investment that comes out of Minnesota into the U.K. puts this place right up there with Chicago," he said. "I honestly do not believe there is anywhere more important in my patch of 14 states than this place."

The event at the Minneapolis Club where he spoke was headlined by University of Minnesota professor Paul Vaaler and BMO Capital Markets chief investment strategist Brian Belski. Bridges happened to be in town and dropped by.

Speaking on the impact of Brexit, Vaaler argued that it highlights the need for corporate executives to understand world affairs and engage in "corporate diplomacy."

"I think some companies have been a little lethargic," he said.

He agreed with Bridges, arguing that Britain's advantages as a money center have little to do with E.U. membership, and more to do with the clustering of financial companies.

The claim that banks will abandon London? "I think it's bunk," Belski said.