This picture launched by the U.S. Navy reveals an aerial view of Diego Garcia, a distant island within the Indian Ocean.
U.S. Navy/AP
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U.S. Navy/AP
LONDON — The UK has signed a deal at hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, in an settlement Britain says can even guarantee the way forward for a strategically essential U.S. army base.
The Chagos Islands are an archipelago in the midst of the Indian Ocean. Below the deal, the U.Ok. can proceed leasing the biggest of the islands, Diego Garcia, holding the important thing army facility in British and American fingers for at the very least 99 years.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the settlement between the U.Ok. and Mauritius and stated in a assertion that President Trump “expressed his assist for this monumental achievement” when he met British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the White Home in February.
Starmer stated the deal to safe the U.Ok.-U.S. army base in Diego Garcia — to be leased for greater than $100 million a yr — is significant for Britain’s protection, intelligence and nationwide safety.
The prime minister of Mauritius, Navin Ramgoolam, hailed the deal as a “nice victory for the Mauritian nation,” and stated, “We’re finishing the method of complete decolonization.”
The deal comes after a prolonged dispute over the islands that has concerned questions over Britain’s colonial legacy.
The Chagos Archipelago grew to become a British territory in 1814. In 1965, the U.Ok. formally separated the islands from its then-colony Mauritius, earlier than Mauritius gained independence three years later. Within the late Nineteen Sixties, the U.Ok. invited the U.S. to construct a army base on Diego Garcia, which compelled hundreds of individuals from their houses.
However regardless of the U.Ok. paying 3 million kilos for the islands, Mauritius has argued it was illegally compelled to provide them away as a part of a deal to realize independence from Britain. Worldwide courts have sided with Mauritius, a rustic of few greater than 1 million folks.
In a nonbinding opinion in 2019, the Worldwide Court docket of Justice in The Hague concluded that “the method of decolonization of Mauritius was not lawfully accomplished when that nation acceded to independence” and that “the UK is beneath an obligation to convey to an finish its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as quickly as attainable.”
Then in 2021, a United Nations maritime courtroom rejected Britain’s declare to sovereignty over the islands.
Now, the U.Ok. and Mauritius have signed an settlement stating “Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago in its entirety, together with Diego Garcia.”
However Prime Minister Starmer underscored the importance of with the ability to lease again the island the place the important thing army base is positioned.
At U.Ok. army headquarters in Northwood, close to London, Starmer informed reporters that the deal was “one of the vital important contributions that we make to our safety relationship with the US.”
He stated a lot of what the army base is used for is very labeled, however “the strategic location of this base is of the utmost significance to Britain.” He stated it was essential for “defeating terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan” and helped “scale back the dangers to courageous British and American servicemen and girls.”
The British authorities stated the deal was backed by the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, that are a part of an intelligence-sharing partnership with the U.Ok.
Some Chagossians, because the islands’ individuals are identified, have expressed assist for the deal, whereas others are strongly in opposition to it.
The biggest Chagossian group within the U.Ok. is in Crawley, Sussex, in South East England. The city’s consultant in British Parliament, Labour member Peter Lamb, criticized the deal, saying it didn’t safe the best for Chagossians to return to their homeland.
“What ought to I inform my Chagossian constituents, after they ask the ethical foundation upon which the U.Ok. is ignoring their proper to self-determination whereas we struggle for it in Ukraine for Ukrainians?” he stated in Parliament Thursday.
Some opposition politicians railed in opposition to the settlement.
“The Chagos Islands have been British since 1814. Solely Keir Starmer’s Labour Social gathering would negotiate a deal the place we’re paying to provide one thing away,” Conservative Social gathering chief Kemi Badenoch stated. “This can be a very important army base. Mauritius is an ally of China.”
Proper-wing populist Reform U.Ok. occasion chief Nigel Farage additionally stated the transfer “performs into China’s fingers.”
