UK agrees to transfer Chagos Islands to Mauritius: Understanding the dispute and how India reacted

Members of the Chagossian community and supporters pose for a photo outside the High Court in London (AFP)

The United Kingdom has signed an agreement to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while leasing the Diego Garcia military base to maintain joint US-UK control for an annual fee of £101 million (approx. $129 million) for at least 99 years.

The decision follows a High Court ruling that cleared the path for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to formalize the long-disputed deal. This marks the end of decades of British administration over the Indian Ocean archipelago, which has been at the center of legal and diplomatic disputes since it was separated from Mauritius in 1965.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that the agreement is essential to protect the military base from "malign influence." Meanwhile, Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam called the deal the completion of "the total process of decolonisation."

Decoding the dispute of Chagos Islands 

The Chagos Islands is a chain of over 60 remote islands that are located in the middle of the Indian Oceacn, south of India and the Maldives. The islands was under Britishers since 1814, when they were ceded by France.

Islands were officially British Indian Ocean Territory however they were located  approximately 5,799 miles (9,332 km) southeast of the UK and around 1,250 miles northeast of Mauritius.

In 1968, Britain claimed to have purchased the islands for £3 million. However, Mauritius asserts that it was forced to relinquish the islands in exchange for independence. Following this, the UK invited the U.S. to establish a military base on Diego Garcia, forcibly removing thousands of native Chagossians from their homeland.

The archipelago is best known for the military base on Diego Garcia, which has supported U.S. military operations from the Vietnam War to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, the U.S. acknowledged that the base had also been used for secret rendition flights involving terror suspects.

The U.S. has described the base—home to approximately 2,500 personnel, primarily Americans—as “an almost indispensable platform” for security operations across the Middle East, South Asia, and East Africa.

Recently, the U.S. deployed several nuclear-capable B-2 Spirit bombers to Diego Garcia as part of an intense airstrike campaign targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

India's response 

India has welcomed the treaty signed between the United Kingdom and Mauritius that restores Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) called the agreement a "milestone achievement" and a "positive development for the region."

“The formal resolution of the longstanding Chagos dispute through this bilateral treaty is a milestone achievement and a positive development for the region. This is further to the understanding between the two sides reached in October 2024 and marks the culmination of the process of decolonisation of Mauritius in the spirit of international law and rules-based order,” the MEA said in a statement.

India reaffirmed its consistent support for Mauritius’s claim to the Chagos Islands, in line with its stance on decolonisation and respect for national sovereignty.

“As a steadfast and longstanding partner of Mauritius, India remains committed to working closely with Mauritius and other like-minded countries to strengthen maritime security and regional stability and ensure peace and prosperity in the Indian Ocean region,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated.

All about Diego Garcia

Diego Garcia is the largest island of the Chagos Islands chain.

Since the 1970s, the UK and US have jointly operated a secretive military base on Diego Garcia, equipped with an airfield, deep-water port, and advanced communications and surveillance systems.

With no commercial flights, access is strictly controlled by military authorities. The base’s central location in the Indian Ocean makes it strategically vital. During the post-9/11 "war on terror," it served as a launch point for US missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.