LONDON: UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson has suggested building a giant bridge between Britain and France to strengthen ties post-Brexit.
Speaking to French president Emmanuel Macron during a UK-France summit on Thursday, Johnson said it was “ridiculous” that the two countries are linked by a single railway and floated the idea of a 22-mile Channel Bridge to maintain “good connections” in the future, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.
The French premier is understood to have welcomed the suggestion, saying “I agree. Let’s do it,” and Johnson tweeted to say that a panel of experts should be assigned to consider “major projects.”
Johnson, a prominent voice in the campaign for Britain to leave the EU, also tweeted a photo of the pair giving a thumbs up after the summit, captioned: “En marche! Great meetings with French counterparts today.”
In a further tweet he said: “Our economic success depends on good infrastructure and good connections. Should the Channel Tunnel be just a first step?”
A joint statement from the summit described the “long history of collaboration in delivering cutting-edge technologies” between England and France.
“Whether pioneering supersonic travel or better connecting our countries through the Channel Tunnel, co-operation between our nations has produced radical innovation.”
In the past Johnson has raised the idea of building another channel tunnel to consolidate the relationship between the two countries when Britain leaves the EU. However speaking to his aides Thursday, Johnson said that a bridge across the 22-miles Channel between England and France would be achievable, pointing larger structures in Japan and elsewhere.
The world’s longest bridge is the Danyang-Kunchan Grand Bridge in China, which stretches for 102.4 miles along the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.