Obama: UK, EU to remain US key partners
US President Barack Obama has said that the United Kingdom and the European Union will remain “indispensable partners” of the United States after Britain voted in favor of Brexit.
In a historic referendum on Thursday, a majority of Britons voted to leave the 28-member bloc after 43 years. Some 51.90 percent of British voters opted to leave the EU, while roughly 48.10 percent of people voted to stay in the union.
In response, Obama issued a statement on Friday, saying that “the people of the United Kingdom have spoken, and we respect their decision.”
“The special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is enduring, and the United Kingdom’s membership in NATO remains a vital cornerstone of US foreign, security, and economic policy,” he said.
“So too is our relationship with the European Union, which has done so much to promote stability, stimulate economic growth, and foster the spread of democratic values and ideals across the continent and beyond,” the president added.
Obama made such remarks, while he had previously urged Britain to stay a EU member in his visit to London in April.
On April 24, Obama said that a trade deal between the US and the UK could take almost a decade to negotiate if Britain voted to leave the European Union.
"It could be five years from now, 10 years from now before we're actually able to get something done," Obama told the BBC in an interview.
His comments infuriated anti-EU campaigners who accused him of interfering in UK internal politics.
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