Britain’s new foreign minister Jeremy Hunt warned Monday on his first official visit to Germany that failure to secure a Brexit deal could harm European ties for decades to come.
After talks with his German counterpart Heiko Maas in Berlin, Hunt told reporters that complacency could lead to Britain crashing out of the European Union without a roadmap for future ties.
“When it comes to Brexit there is now a very real risk of a Brexit no-deal by accident,” he said.
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“This is because I think that many people in the EU are thinking that they just have to wait long enough and Britain will blink and that’s not going to happen.”
Hunt, who took over from Boris Johnson after his resignation this month, said that “without a real change in approach from the EU negotiators”, both sides could be left struggling to maintain trade and security ties.
“That would be incredibly challenging economically. Britain would find that challenging but in the end we would find a way not just to survive but to thrive economically,” he said.
“But my real concern is that it would change British public attitudes to Europe for a generation and it would lead to a fissure in relations which would be highly damaging for that great partnership that we’ve had for so many years, that has been so important in sustaining the international order.”
(AFP)