UK cedes control of Chagos Islands, retains rule over Diego Garcia

Britain has signed a deal to hand control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and lease back the UK-US Diego Garcia military base for 101 million pounds a year.

Signed on Thursday, the deal will allow Britain to retain strategic control of the airbase in Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean, under a 99-year lease.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters that "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."

"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," he said.

However, a planned signing ceremony was postponed when lawyers for a British national in the Chagos Islands got an injunction from the British High Court in the early hours of Thursday to stop the deal.

The injunction was the latest legal challenge to the deal in the last two decades brought by members of the wider Chagossian diaspora, many of whom ended up in Britain after being removed from the archipelago more than 50 years ago.

The deal would allow people displaced decades ago to return to the islands. However, many Chagossians are insecure about resettlement due to their exclusion from the negotiations between the UK and Mauritius.

Other Chagossians fear the Mauritian government will not genuinely facilitate the process of return and resettlement.

Nevertheless, London judge Martin Chamberlain overturned the last-minute injunction and cleared the way for an agreement, saying Britain's interests would be "substantially prejudiced" if the injunction were to continue.

Details of the deal were first announced in October when Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam came to power.

It was further delayed due to Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, with London wanting to give its partner time to examine the plan. In February, Trump announced his backing of the deal.

Ramgoolam embraced the deal in the presence of reporters, saying, "With this agreement, we are completing the total process of decolonization."

"It's total recognition of our sovereignty on the Chagos, including Diego Garcia," he said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also welcomed the deal, saying it "secures the long-term, stable, and effective operation of the joint US-UK military facility at Diego Garcia".

The UK has been under pressure to hand back control of the territory, after the UN and the International Court of Justice sided with Mauritius.

Starmer said that the base was under threat because of Mauritius's legal claim to the Chagos Islands, which has been recognized by multiple international courts.

The deal is not fully supported in the UK, and has been the subject of months of wrangling.

"Labour's Chagos Surrender Deal is bad for our defense and security interests, bad for British taxpayers and bad for British Chagossians," Conservative Party foreign affairs spokeswoman Priti Patel said on X.

Other opposition figures, including Kemi Badenoch, criticized the deal, arguing it was both costly and that by ceding sovereignty, China could further deepen its ties with Mauritius, benefiting Beijing's influence in the Indian Ocean.

"It leaves us more exposed to China, and ignores the will of the Chagossian people. And we're paying billions to do so," Badenoch said.

British politician Nigel Farage also appeared to be against the deal, stating that the British administration cares more about foreign courts "than Britain's national interest."

Britain has controlled the region since 1814. In 1965, it occupied the Chagos Islands to form the so-called British Indian Ocean Territory.

It then evicted around 2,000 residents to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for an airbase on the largest island, Diego Garcia.

In 2019, a UN resolution said Britain had wrongfully forced the population to leave and give up control of the islands.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk