“The special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is enduring, and the United Kingdom’s membership in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation remains a vital cornerstone of U.S. foreign, security and economic policy”.
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President Obama has been briefed on the referendum, according to the White House, and plans to speak with Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday to discuss the outcome. “And I think that a lot of people don’t like him and I think if he had not said it, I think your result might have been different”, he said. “We would have preferred a different outcome”, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, travelling in Ireland, said on Friday.
As stock markets tumbled the day after the unexpected vote, Obama offered words of calm and continuity, saying the the shocking vote would disrupt neither the “enduring” bond between the USA and the United Kingdom nor American support for the European alliance.
USA socks plummeted nearly 500 points Friday morning for their biggest drop in 10 months, a concrete reflection of how politics on one side of the Atlantic can profoundly affect the other.
When he was there in April, Obama warned new trade agreements with Britain could be put on hold if the nation made a decision to leave the 28-nation political and economic alliance, saying the United Kingdom could go to the “back of the queue” on trade.
“This time of uncertainty only underscores the need for calm, steady, experienced leadership in the White House to protect Americans’ pocketbooks and livelihoods, to support our friends and allies, to stand up to our adversaries, and to defend our interests”, the statement said.
Republicans sounded the same notes, stressing their respect for the decision as well as the stability of the U.S. -UK relationship.
“While the UK’s relationship with the European Union will change, one thing that will not change is the special relationship that exists between our two nations”.
Having campaigned for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union, however, Obama stressed that the U.S. would remain committed to its European allies.
Others used the vote to make a point about domestic politics. Sen.
Obama traveled to London in April at the request of Cameron, whom he calls a friend, exhorting Britons to stay in the European Union, an unusual intervention that was denounced as meddling by those in the “leave” campaign.
At the time, Obama had suggested that the United Kingdom would pay for a “no” vote economically, getting less preferential trade consideration, and that security ties might be affected as well. “His recommendation perhaps caused it to fail”.
Obama, who was scheduled to deliver remarks to global entrepreneurs at a conference at Stanford University at 10:45 a.m. PDT (1:45 p.m. ET/1745 GMT), was dining out at an upscale restaurant with a small group of top venture capitalists and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs as the results for the “leave” campaign began to roll in.
Obama hopes his former secretary of state Hillary Clinton will win the November election and safeguard his legacy but economic volatility in the United States after Brexit could hurt her chances of beating Trump. Obama had strongly urged that the United Kingdom remain in the European Union, and the decision significantly undermined his efforts to counter the isolationist viewpoints taking hold in many parts of the world.
Obama has encouraged Britain to remain in the European Union but has said the decision ultimately was up to the voters.
“The fallout or the direct impact to the U.S.is pretty minimal from what we can tell, and we might even benefit from this in the near-term because we’re going to appear to be more stable and a less scary place to invest” says Torrano.
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“For sure”, Blinken said, “it’s going to be a complicated process”.
