RIGA - Britain's "Brexit" minister responsible for managing its departure from the European Union on Tuesday denied reports his government was planning to pay eastern EU states to support it during negotiations with Brussels.
David Davis described as "implausible" recent British media reports that money would be diverted from development projects in Africa and Asia to the Baltic states and other eastern EU countries.
"I didn't recognise the story I saw in the papers the other day. It seemed to me to be wholly implausible. We have not started the negotiation yet but that is not the way I think it's going to go," Davis told reporters after talks with Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics in Riga.
"It's not a divorce, it's a new relationship... it's very modern in that respect," Davis added.
Davis also assured Rinkevics that Britain wanted to preserve equal rights for EU citizens living there following Brexit.
"We want to see Latvian citizens in the UK have all the rights they have now continuing into the future.
"That's not just resident rights, that's public services, healthcare, all the normal right we would give our own citizens," Davis said.
Hundreds of thousands of EU citizens living and working in Britain, a majority from eastern EU states like Poland, are demanding that their rights be protected despite Brexit. (AFP)