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Obama reaffirms "special relationship" between U.S., Britain

Xinhua, June 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. President Barack Obama delivered the message twice Friday that there was "special relationship" between his country and Britain, which voted a day earlier to leave the European Union.

Early in the day, the White House released a statement on Obama's behalf, saying the special relationship is "enduring."

At Stanford University, on the U.S. west coast, where Obama joined a group of entrepreneurs at a meeting Friday, he repeated what was already expressed in the statement: "The people of the United Kingdom have spoken, and we respect their decision."

Obama arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area Thursday afternoon. Upon receiving the news that British voters in the "Leave" camp had obtained nearly 52 percent of ballots in a referendum and therefore would pull the country out of the bloc, previously as European Economic Union, after 43 years of membership, the U.S. president said he would talk with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Noting that he did talk with the British leader over the phone Friday morning, Obama told the audience at Stanford that "the United Kingdom and the European Union will remain indispensable partners of the United States even as they begin negotiating their ongoing relationship to ensure continued stability, security, and prosperity for Europe, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the world."

British voters' decision to exit EU, quickly known as Brexit, has sent a shockwave globally, immediately knocking down stock market price indexes around the world and making it uncertain for people to envision a geopolitical future across the Atlantic.

To address the uncertainty and calm the nerve of allies, Britain included, Obama said "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 U.S. foreign, security, and economic policy."

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a trans-Atlantic military group established in 1949. Now with 29 members and headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, it is the world's only major military bloc. Endit