No-deal Brexit will happen on October 31 if there is no backstop agreement: Maas

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas attends the weekly German cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Germany expects Britain to crash out of the European Union on October 31, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Friday.

"We cannot imagine reopening the Withdrawal Agreement," Maas said in the Finnish capital. "We assume that Brexit will happen on October 31. We will do everything to avoid a no-deal Brexit. But the British government has made it clear that if there is no agreement (on the Irish border) a no-deal Brexit will happen."

(Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Tassilo Hummel)