Britain will remain a strong ally and continue to play a leading role in NATO despite its vote to leave the European Union, alliance head Jens Stoltenberg said Friday.

"The UK will remain a strong and committed NATO ally and will continue to play its leading role in our alliance," Stoltenberg said in a statement.

He said NATO would also provide a platform for continued cooperation between its European member states in the face of new security challenges.

"Today, as we face more instability and uncertainty, NATO is more important than ever as a platform for cooperation among European allies, and between Europe and North America," he said.

"The alliance remains committed to closer cooperation with the European Union," he added.

Some 22 of the 28 EU nations are also NATO member states.

Stoltenberg told reporters separately that he was concerned "about a more fragmented Europe but it is important now to look forward and work on how we can strengthen cooperation."

He said British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon had phoned him earlier Friday to offer assurances the London "was not only committed to NATO but also to NATO-EU cooperation."

NATO leaders meeting in Warsaw next month are due to issue a full-dress statement on enhanced cooperation with the EU, he noted.

Britons voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the EU on a groundswell of resentment at what was seen as Brussels' interference in key aspects of daily life.

Britain, nuclear armed and wielding veto powers in the UN Security Council, has had a major say in EU foreign and defence policy.

It has jealously guarded its sovereign right to decide what it does with its own military, shooting down any suggestion that the EU could one day have an army of its own.

No immediate Brexit shock, Russia says
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UPI) Jun 24, 2016 - With up to $30 billion in new project investments with China on tap, the British exit from the EU might not mean much for Russia, a finance official said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to step down as voters backed a referendum to leave the European Union.

Russia has relied on natural gas deliveries to the European economy for decades, more recently mulling a strategy to link its Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea to the British energy sector. Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said that, so far, it's unclear how the referendum will impact the Russian economy directly. Alexei Kudrin, the head of the Center for Strategic Development, meanwhile, said Russia has too many problems of its own to deal with.

"We have our own problems, which are more pressing," he said through his Twitter account. "One can regret the decision of the British people to leave the EU, but there will be no catastrophe, although the financial market will be facing some short-term instability."

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets during the weekend with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. Russian finance officials said more than a dozen new investments projects worth $30 billion could be added to a bilateral portfolio.

The Kremlin's press service this week said Putin aims to build an "equal and confidential partnership" with China. China is linked already to Russian oil supplies through the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline and natural gas company Gazprom has a 30-year sales agreement with China for its so-called Power of Siberia pipeline. Reports this week suggested China may be a potential investor in Russian oil company Rosneft, on the table as a possible target of a privatization scheme in Russia.

Speaking from Uzbekistan on Friday, Putin himself lauded the close economic ties in Asia.

"We must continue removing barriers to trade and capital and labor movement, deepen our industrial and technological cooperation, and develop industrial chains and a common transport infrastructure," he said.