The British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur will continue to focus on further strengthening the relationship with Malaysia for the mutual interest of both countries.

"We welcome Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's statement. The United Kingdom (UK) and Malaysia are important partners and this does not change," British High Commissioner to Malaysia, Vicki Treadell said today.

Treadell said this in a statement following the decision by the UK to exit the European Union(EU), through the Brexit referendum, yesterday.

"This is a historic decision by the British people, they have made the choice to leave the EU.

"The UK government will now work towards delivering the will of the people and commence the formal and legal process of leaving the EU," she said.

Treadell added that the UK's economy is fundamentally strong and remains as the fifth largest economy in the world, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a member of the Group of Seven (G7), the G20 and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).

She said the UK continued to be the only member of those groups that spend both two percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) on defence and security and 0.7 percent on helping others through global development assistance programmes.

"This is the UK's place in the world," she added.

The referendum, which acted as an advice to the British government, will undergo two years of negotiations to finalise the "divorce" from the economic bloc, which generated about €13.920 trillion in gross domestic product in 2014.

Meanwhile, Najib, in a statement commenting on the referendum, said whatever comes to pass, he was confident the Malaysia-UK relationship would be maintained and strengthened.

- Bernama