The possibility of building a connection between the Iberian Peninsula and the African continent is once again on the table. However, it is not Spain that has taken up this initiative, which has been explored for almost half a century, but the United Kingdom. London, or rather Boris Johnson, is determined to take advantage of the trade opportunities that may arise from its new status as a former partner of the European Union. And connecting Gibraltar to Morocco through Tangier is one of them.

The British premier's cabinet would be considering, in collaboration with the Moroccan government, taking up a project that has already been started previously by Spain and Morocco, of a tunnel to connect the British Overseas Territory Gibraltar with the Moroccan city of Tangiers. At the time, Spain began the construction of the tunnel in Cadiz, but after two years, work on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar was abandoned due to maintenance problems and flooding.

Atalayar_Un hombre revisa su equipaje mientras espera para embarcar en los transbordadores con destino a Tánger

AFP/JORGE GUERRERO - A man checks his luggage while waiting to board the ferries to Tangier at the port of Algeciras on 27 July 2019

In principle, the most plausible option is an underwater tunnel of about 30 kilometres long, similar to the Eurotunnel that connects the island of Great Britain with France, built at the end of the last century and with a length of 50 kilometres. In 2013, it is projected to exceed a turnover of more than one billion euros for the first time in its history, and it seems that the United Kingdom wants to repeat this engineering success and exploit its commercial potential.

Morocco would see this project in a good light, not only because of the facilities that this would bring for example to the always multitudinous operation of the Strait, when thousands of Moroccan citizens travel from different points of Europe to Morocco and collapse the port areas of southern Spain. In Rabat it is also seen as an option for boosting the commercial role of the north of the country in the respective Mediterranean areas, which is centred, among other things, on the port of Tangiers-Med, whose expansion was completed just a year and a half ago.

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PHOTO/REUTERS - Overview of the Tangier-Med container port at Ksar Sghir, near the coastal city of Tangier, Morocco

Relations between the two capitals have been strengthened in recent years, once the Brexit was confirmed as a new reality for the United Kingdom, as a means of diversifying and strengthening trade ties in an attempt to mitigate the economic impact of its withdrawal from the European Union.

Before coming to power, Boris Johnson, in his capacity as British foreign minister, was responsible for initiating this new strategic relationship with the Alaouite kingdom. He did so through a series of meetings with his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, in the British capital, where issues related to the economy, culture and security were discussed.

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PHOTO/REUTERS - Prince Henry of the United Kingdom meets Saad Eddine El Othmani, Prime Minister of Morocco, during the UK-Africa Investment Summit in London, UK, on 20 January 2020

Moroccan agricultural products can replace Spanish, Portuguese and Italian products now that the United Kingdom is outside the EU, and this is just one of the areas where the two countries can come closer together. Of course, the tourism sector is another of them, and that is why Morocco is also investing heavily in its development in the north of the country, where the connection between Tangiers and Gibraltar could be a major incentive.

At last year's United Kingdom-Africa summit, it was already possible to see how well the Moroccan and British authorities were attuned to each other. During the summit, Morocco offered itself to the United Kingdom as a gateway to the African continent. This growing relationship was consolidated this past summer with the signing of several trade agreements between the two countries to reduce or directly eliminate tariffs on a number of fruit and vegetable products.

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