“I don’t anticipate that there’s going to be major, cataclysmic changes as a consequence of this,” Obama said in an interview to National Public Radio.
“I think that the best way to think about this is a pause button has been pressed on the project of full European integration. I would not overstate it,” he said in response to a question.
“There’s been a little bit of hysteria post-Brexit vote, as if somehow NATO’s gone and the trans-Atlantic alliance is dissolving and every country’s rushing off to its own corner.
And that’s not what’s happening,” Obama said.
Noting that Norway is not a member of the European Union (EU), Obama said but it is one of closest US allies.
“They align themselves on almost every issue within Europe and us. They are a place that is continually supporting the kind of initiatives internationally that we support,” he said.
“And if, over the course of what is going to be at least a two-year negotiation between England and Europe, Great Britain ends up being affiliated to Europe like Norway is, the average person is not going to notice a big change,” said the US President.
PTI