Britain announced on Thursday, the 3rd of October, that it would transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a deal that it says secures the future of the UK-US Diego Garcia military base and could also pave the way for displaced people from decades ago to return home, with US President Joe Biden welcoming the deal but critics saying the move was a capitulation to China, while a group representing the displaced Chagos Islanders expressed frustration at being excluded from the negotiating process, reports Reuters.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the agreement resolved the contentious issue of sovereignty over the islands, Britain’s last overseas territory in Africa.
Foreign Secretary Lammy said that despite legal challenges that had threatened the long-term future of the Diego Garcia military base, which served as a launching pad for long-range bombers during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, its strategic importance was now assured for at least 99 years.
“Today’s agreement… will strengthen our role in global security,” Lammy said in a statement.
Biden echoed that sentiment, saying Diego Garcia plays a “critical role in national, regional and global security”.
“It allows the United States to support operations that demonstrate our shared commitment to regional stability, respond quickly to crises, and address some of the most challenging security threats we face,” he said.
Britain has controlled the Chagos Archipelago since 1814, separating it from Mauritius in 1965 to form the British Indian Ocean Territory and expelling some 2 000 inhabitants in the early 1970s to establish a US air base on the island of Diego Garcia. A 2019 UN resolution called on Britain to relinquish control of the archipelago, citing the illegal expulsion of residents. In 2016, the UK extended the lease of Diego Garcia until 2036 and banned the expelled islanders from returning.
The new agreement states that Mauritius will be free to implement a resettlement programme on all islands other than Diego Garcia, with the conditions to be decided by Mauritius.
“We were driven by our conviction to complete the decolonisation of our republic,” said Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth in a televised address.
Olivier Bancoult, head of the Mauritius-based Chagos Refugee Group, said it marked a turning point and a formal recognition of the injustices suffered by the Chagossians.
But the UK-based diaspora group Voices of Chagos condemned the fact that “the Chagossian community has been excluded from the talks”.
“Chagossians… remain powerless and voiceless in deciding our own future and the future of our homeland,” said a statement on Facebook.
For his part, David Blagden, Associate Professor of International Security and Strategy at the University of Exeter, said the deal was a “big win” for Mauritius, allowing it to receive financial aid from China “in return for making it difficult for the US and UK to use Diego Garcia”.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer made resolving the Chagos Islands issue a priority after his Labour Party victory, but leading members of the opposition Conservative Party criticised the deal, claiming it threatened to allow China to gain a foothold in the Indian Ocean, with Conservative security spokesman Tom Tugendhat calling it a “dangerous capitulation”.
But US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller assured that the security of the base would be maintained under the agreement.