European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has said that work to save the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, will be continued in 2019.

“In September – after a meeting with the Foreign Ministers of China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and Iran, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly – European countries have started preparations to create a mechanism to let our firms continue their legitimate business with Iran. The work continues in 2019 – to prevent a new nuclear arms race in al already unstable region, to strengthen the multilateral non-proliferation architecture that underpins our collective security,” she wrote in an article titled “Twelve things to bring with us in 2019”.

“In May, Donald Trump announced that the United States would stop implementing the deal negotiated by all global powers with Iran. A few minutes later, on behalf of the other countries that negotiated and concluded the deal, I confirmed the international community’s determination to preserve the deal and its implementation. Two and a half years after we reached the deal, it continues to work and to guarantee the exclusively civilian nature of Iran’s nuclear programme,” she added in the article posted on her website.

In an interview published by Livemint on Tuesday, Mogherini said the EU is working with the rest of the international community to preserve the nuclear deal.

“We are working, as a union of 28 member states and with the rest of the international community, to preserve a nuclear agreement that has so far been implemented in full, as certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 13 consecutive reports,” she said.

Mogherini said, “We Europeans cannot accept that a foreign power — even our closest friend and ally — makes decisions over our legitimate trade with another country. This is a basic element of sovereignty, and it is only natural that this reflection takes place, not only in Europe but in other parts of the world, too.”

Trump has threatened to punish Europeans if they have economic interaction with Iran.