UK agrees at hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a deal it says protects a key US base

[ad_1] LONDON (AP) — Britain signed an settlement Thursday at hand sovereignty over the contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius, a transfer the federal government says ensures the way forward for a U.S.-U.Ok. army base that's important to British safety.

The Indian Ocean archipelago is residence to a strategically essential naval and bomber base on the biggest of the islands, Diego Garcia.

Underneath the settlement, the U.Ok. pays Mauritius a mean of 101 million kilos ($136 million) a 12 months to lease again the bottom for a minimum of 99 years.

Folks display exterior the Excessive Courtroom in London, Thursday, Could 22, 2025, after a British court docket blocked the U.Ok. from transferring sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius hours earlier than the settlement was because of be signed. (AP Photograph/Thomas Krych)

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Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that base, operated by U.S. forces, is essential for British counterterrorism and intelligence and is “proper on the basis of our security and safety at residence.”

“By agreeing to this deal now on our phrases, we’re securing robust protections, together with from malign affect, that can permit the bottom to function nicely into the following century, serving to to maintain us secure for generations to return,” Starmer instructed reporters at a U.Ok. army headquarters in Northwood, close to London.

Critics of the deal, which have to be accepted by Parliament, argue that giving up the islands, which have been British territory for 2 centuries, places them prone to interference by international powers akin to Russia or China.

Conservative protection spokesman James Cartlidge known as the deal a “whole, abject give up of our territory and a elementary betrayal of the U.Ok. nationwide curiosity.”

The settlement was struck within the face of opposition from among the islands’ unique residents, who had been expelled many years in the past to make manner for the bottom.

The settlement was because of be signed by Starmer and Mauritian chief Navin Ramgoolam at a digital ceremony on Thursday morning. However signing was delayed for a number of hours after a U.Ok. choose imposed a last-minute injunction blocking the switch on the behest of two Chagossian campaigners . The injunction was later lifted by one other choose.

Displaced islanders have fought unsuccessfully in U.Ok. courts for years for the suitable to go residence. Chagos-born Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe, who introduced the newest authorized problem, worry it'll develop into even tougher to return to their birthplace as soon as Mauritius takes management.

Folks display exterior the International Workplace in London, Thursday, Could 22, 2025, after a British court docket blocked the U.Ok. from transferring sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius hours earlier than the settlement was because of be signed. (AP Photograph/Thomas Krych)

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The deal establishes a belief fund to learn the Chagossians and says “Mauritius is free to implement a program of resettlement” on the islands, aside from Diego Garcia. Nevertheless it doesn't require the residents to be resettled.

Pompe stated it was “a really unhappy day,“ however vowed to proceed preventing.

“The rights we're asking for now, we've been preventing for for 60 years,” she stated exterior the Excessive Courtroom. “Mauritius will not be going to provide that to us.”

One of many final remnants of the British Empire, the Chagos Islands have been beneath U.Ok. management since 1814. Britain break up the islands away from Mauritius, a former British colony, in 1965, three years earlier than Mauritius gained independence.

Britain evicted as many as 2,000 people from the islands within the Sixties and Seventies so the U.S. army may construct the Diego Garcia base, which has supported U.S. operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. It has amenities to accommodate nuclear submarines, plane carriers and huge airplanes, and performs a key position in U.S. intelligence-gathering.

Mauritius has lengthy contested Britain’s declare to the archipelago, and the United Nations and its high court docket have urged Britain to return the Chagos to Mauritius , round 2,100 kilometers (1,250 miles) southwest of the islands.

In a non-binding 2019 opinion, the International Court of Justice ruled that the U.K. had unlawfully carved up Mauritius when it agreed to finish colonial rule within the late Sixties.

Starmer stated that “we needed to act now as a result of the bottom was beneath risk.”

He stated Mauritius is prone to have taken Britain to court docket inside weeks and the U.Ok. had no “real looking prospect of success.”

Britain’s protection ministry stated the deal contains robust protections, together with a 24-mile (39 kilometer) exclusion zone round Diego Garcia, a U.Ok. veto over improvement on the broader islands and a ban on international safety forces on the islands.

Negotiations on handing the islands to Mauritius started in 2022 beneath the earlier Conservative authorities and resumed after Starmer’s Labour Occasion was elected in July.

A draft settlement was struck in October, however was delayed by a change of presidency in Mauritius and quarrels over how a lot the U.Ok. ought to pay to lease the bottom.

Britain additionally paused to seek the advice of Presient Donald Trump’s administration after the change of presidency in Washington.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the settlement, saying it “secures the long-term, secure, and efficient operation” of the Diego Garcia base, ”a crucial asset for regional and world safety. “

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Related Press author Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.

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