The United Kingdom has finally decided to relinquish its hold on its last standing African colony, the Chagos Islands, situated in the island nation of Mauritius.
- The United Kingdom has agreed to transfer jurisdiction of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
- This deal retains UK control of the Diego Garcia military base under a 99-year lease.
- The lease agreement involves a payment of £101 million to Mauritius yearly.
On Thursday, the United Kingdom inked an agreement to hand over jurisdiction of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, where a UK-US military installation is situated.
This is coming months after U.S. President Donald Trump gave his stamp of approval for the handover.
“I have a feeling it’s going to work out very well,” Donald Trump had said to the Prime Minister of the UK, Keir Starmer, in February, during his visit to the White House.
The new multibillion-dollar agreement will, however, allow Britain to keep control of the strategically significant US-UK air base on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Indian Ocean archipelago, on a 99-year lease, as seen on Reuters.
The deal, first proposed in October last year, will see Britain pay its former colony £101 million ($136 million) annually throughout the aforementioned lease period.
“There’s no alternative but to act in Britain’s national interest by agreeing to this deal,” the Prime Minister of the UK stated.
“The net cost over the length of the lease would be around £3.4 billion if inflation was factored in, he added.
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The signing took place after the meticulously planned event stalled, owing to the High Court’s granting of an interim order to attorneys for a British person born in the Chagos Islands early on Thursday morning.
“The strategic location of this base is of the utmost significance to Britain, from deploying aircraft to defeat terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan to anticipating threats in the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a news conference.
“By agreeing to this deal now, on our terms, we’re securing strong protections, including from malign influence, that will allow the base to operate well into the next century.”
The UK’s current administration has long maintained that the agreement is necessary to ensure Diego Garcia’s future, despite criticism from opposition parties that it is pursuing an excessively expensive deal that would only end up serving China.
“Labour’s Chagos Surrender Deal is bad for our defence and security interests, bad for British taxpayers and bad for British Chagossians,” Conservative Party foreign affairs spokeswoman Priti Patel said on X.
Chagos islands: UK and Mauritius
The United Kingdom formed the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) in 1965, isolating the islands from Mauritius until the latter gained independence in 1968.
For decades, the Chagossians have been fighting for their right to return, submitting cases in British courts.
The UK had repeatedly blocked their return, citing security concerns about the US military installation on Diego Garcia.
In 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Britain must return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, declaring the separation unlawful under international law. The United Nations General Assembly voted in support of Mauritius’ claim.
However, the United Nations and its highest court have lately urged Britain to relinquish the Chagos to Mauritius, as the island nation has long contested Britain’s claim to the archipelago.
