UK cedes Chagos archipelago to Mauritius
Washington celebrated the agreement claiming that it will allow it to maintain its joint military base on the island of Diego Garcia, but British opponents claimed that their government had just ceded territory to an ally of China for a high price.
Keir Starmer, British Prime Minister
The British government on Thursday initialed a pact to hand over the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean to the Republic of Mauritius. As part of the agreement, the U.K. will be able to maintain a joint military base there with the United States.
At the last minute, the British judiciary rejected an appeal that attempted to paralyze the signing of the agreement. After the signing, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the pact would ensure the future of the base on Diego Garcia Island. In October, London agreed to recognize Mauritius' sovereignty over Chagos under the condition of maintaining the war facility.
Starmer reported that the agreement calls for payment of $136 million annually for 99 years for the lease of the facility. The British media The Daily Mail, however, reported that the cost could cost the British taxpayer ten times what the premier reported.
Although Starmer assured that there was "no alternative" to guarantee the future of the military base, critics of the agreement claim that the "weak" premier is "handing over British sovereign territory" without being required to do so by any court. This was said, in particular, by Conservative MP Chris Philp, who remarked that Mauritius "has never owned these islands."
"Other countries may nod along, but behind closed doors, they must think we’ve lost our minds," maintained the leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch. "Labour is turning Britain into a global laughing stock."
"The Chagos Islands have been British since 1814," she remarked in a video shared on X. "Only Keir Starmer's Labour Party would negotiate a deal where we are paying to give something away," she added, noting that the military base was "vital" and that the African nation was "an ally of China."
Conservative bewilderment at home contrasted with jubilation in Mauritius, where Starmer's decision was hailed as a "great victory" by the prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam. The pact, he assured, "completes the process of decolonisation of Mauritius, which began in 1968."
From the United States the news was also applauded, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserting that the agreement "secures the long-term, stable, and effective operation of the joint U.S.-U.K. military facility at Diego Garcia, which is critical to regional and global security."
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