EU will 'survive' Brexit, remain strong: Mogherini

HAVANA: The European Union will "survive" Britain's Brexit departure and will remain strong, the bloc's foreign policy chief said Wednesday.

"Many believed that the referendum in the United Kingdom (on leaving the EU) was going to be the beginning of the end of the European Union," Federica Mogherini said during a two-day visit to Cuba.

"I'm very positive on the fact that the Union is not only going to survive, but it's going to go deeper," Mogherini said.

"The world needs the European Unions to stay strong, and so, this is what are we are going to do," she said.

Britons voted 52 to 48 percent in June 2016 in favor of quitting the EU, putting their country on track to become the first to leave the bloc.

Britain began what is expected to be two years of difficult divorce negotiations with a formal notification by letter to the EU president in March 2017.

The talks between London and Brussels are set to move on to transition arrangements, trade and security as Britain prepares to leave the European Union in March 2019.