UK hands over sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius in deal to secure US base

US Air Force ground crew members wave at a B-52H Stratofortress bomber as it taxis in Diego Garcia military base. (Photo-AFP)

Britain’s government said Thursday it agreed to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands, an archipelago of more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius, in a deal that secures the future of a strategically important UK-US military base there.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the agreement secures the vital military base at Diego Garcia, the largest in the chain of islands, for the future. The UK government said without the deal the secure operation of the military base would be under threat, with contested sovereignty and legal challenges, including through various international courts and tribunals. As part of the deal, the UK will retain sovereignty of Diego Garcia for an initial period of 99 years.

“It will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security, shut down any possibility of the Indian Ocean being used as a dangerous illegal migration route to the UK, as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner,” Lammy said. The deal was strongly supported by international partners including the US, British officials said.

The agreement will have to be signed off in a treaty and is dependent on legal processes being finalized. Both sides have committed to complete this as quickly as possible The Chagos Islands have been at the heart of what Britain calls the British Indian Ocean Territory since 1965 when they were siphoned away from Mauritius, a UK territory that gained independence three years later.

The US Navy base at Diego Garcia was built in the 1970s and provides what American authorities have described as “an all but indispensable platform” for security operations in the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa. Around 1,500 inhabitants from the Chagos Islands were displaced to make way for the US base. It’s unclear immediately whether they and their descendants, who are mainly living in the UK, Mauritius and the Seychelles, will have a right to return.

In a statement, the White House said President Joe Biden applauded the “historic agreement” on the status of the Chagos Islands. It called the Diego Garcia base vital in preserving “national, regional, and global security”. “The agreement secures the effective operation of the joint facility on Diego Garcia into the next century,” the statement said. “This agreement affirms Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, while granting the United Kingdom the authority to exercise the sovereign rights of Mauritius with respect to Diego Garcia.”