BERLIN (Sputnik) — The European Union will develop friendly relations with the United Kingdom after Brexit depending on European interests, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
"We are speaking about a historic moment. On the one hand we respect the referendum's results, we will hold talks on Brexit and we expect the UK to make a Brexit request, but after this we should develop friendly relations [with London]… basing on interests that [the European Union] has," Merkel said Tuesday at a briefing following the EU summit in Brussels.
According to Merkel, Germany does not see the way to reverse the results of the Brexit referendum.
On June 23, the United Kingdom held a referendum to determine whether or not the country should leave the EU. According to the final results, 51.9 percent of voters, or 17.4 million people, decided to support Brexit, while about 16.1 million opposed it.