UK's Post-Brexit Trade Likely To See Strengthened Ties With Russia - Get Out Britain Group

The United Kingdom is reconsidering its global trade links in anticipation of the departure from the European Union, which is likely to boost the country's trade ties with Russia among others, Jayne Adye, the director of Get Britain Out, an independent Brexit campaigning group, told Sputnik on Wednesday.

SOCHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2018) The United Kingdom is reconsidering its global trade links in anticipation of the departure from the European Union, which is likely to boost the country's trade ties with Russia among others, Jayne Adye, the director of Get Britain Out, an independent Brexit campaigning group, told Sputnik on Wednesday.

On Monday, Russia's Trade Representative in the United Kingdom Boris Abramov said that Moscow and London had resumed dialogue on trade for the first time since 2014. According to Abramov, the dialogue resumption was significantly facilitated by the Brexit process.

"Trading with the rest of the world, including Russia, is one of the principle advantages of our exiting the European Union. As part of our exit plan we will pursue trade with all potential economic partners ... Currently the UK imports from Russia are 4.7 billion Pounds [$6.2 billion] with 5.3 billion pounds in exports. This is highly likely to change when we are free of the European Union," Adye said on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in the Russian resort city of Sochi.

Adye, nevertheless, added that other aspects of the UK-Russian relationship were less likely to change in a positive manner.

"From a security perspective, recent experience and as a founder member of NATO, Britain will always seek to enhance its security through positive cooperation with all willing partners. The United Kingdom's strong stance on sanctions against Russia is unlikely to change," Adye said.

The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in a referendum in June 2016 and is expected to do so by late March 2019.

The Russian-UK trade dialogue at a ministerial level was frozen back in 2014 amid the Ukraine crisis. Further escalation of bilateral tensions happened in March 2018 when London accused Moscow of having been involved in the attempted murder of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK city of Salisbury. Russia has refuted the accusations as unsubstantiated and demanded cooperation in investigation into the incident. London has rejected the offers for cooperation and has since being pushing for tougher sanctions regime on Russia.