The UK has signed a £3.4bn ($4.6bn) deal to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while retaining control of a UK-US military base on Diego Garcia – the largest of the islands.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says the 99-year agreement to lease back Diego Garcia will cost the UK £101m a year, and is necessary to protect the base from “malign influence”. Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam said the agreement completed “the total process of decolonisation”.
But UK opposition leaders – and some Chagossians now resident in the UK – have criticised the deal.
Where are the Chagos Islands?
The Chagos Islands – officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory – are located in the Indian Ocean about 5,799 miles (9,332km) south-east of the UK, and about 1,250 miles north-east of Mauritius.
The islands, also known as the Chagos Archipelago – comprised of seven atolls with about 60 individual islands – were separated from Mauritius in 1965, when Mauritius was still a British colony.
Britain purchased the islands for £3m but Mauritius has argued that it was illegally forced to give them away as part of a deal to gain independence from Britain.
In the late 1960s, Britain invited the US to build a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands, forcibly removing thousands of people from their homes in the process.
Some of those Chagossians ended up in Mauritius and the Seychelles, but others settled in the UK, mostly in Crawley, West Sussex.
What deal has been struck with Mauritius? And how much will it cost?
The UK has handed sovereignty of the archipelago to Mauritius, but will lease use of Diego Garcia for a period of 99 years – at an average cost of £101m a year.
The UK will pay £165m in each of the first three years. From years four to 13, it will pay £120m a year. After that, payments will be indexed to inflation.
Sir Keir said continued use of Diego Garcia as a military base had been signed off by members of the five eyes alliance – the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The US will pay for “running costs” of the base, he said.
The agreement also includes a £40m trust fund to support Chagossians.
Under the deal, although Mauritius will control Diego Garcia, it will not be allowed to resettle the island.
Bernadette Dugasse is one of two Chagossian women, born on Diego Garcia, who brought a last-minute legal challenge over the deal to the UK’s High Court. She told the BBC: “I don’t belong in the UK, I don’t belong in Mauritius, I don’t belong in the Seychelles. I belong in Diego Garcia.”
Their legal challenge had temporarily blocked the deal when a court injunction was granted, but the High Court went on to dismiss the challenge.
What is the Diego Garcia military base?
Diego Garcia is the largest of the Chagos Islands.
Since the early 1970s, the UK and the US have jointly run a secretive military base there. The government says its facilities include an airfield and deep-water port, as well as advanced communications and surveillance capabilities.
There are no commercial flights to the island. Access is granted by the military facility or, previously, the British authority that ran the territory.
Diego Garcia is seen as having high strategic important because of its location in the heart of the Indian Ocean.
During the US “war on terror” after the 9/11 attacks, aircraft were sent directly from the island to carry out missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
What’s the reaction been in the UK?
The Conservatives have criticised the deal. Party leader Kemi Badenoch called the deal an “act of national self-harm”.
“It leaves us more exposed to China, and ignores the will of the Chagossian people. And we’re paying billions to do so,” she said.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the deal was “not necessary” and played “into China’s hands”.
The government, however, said the continued use of the military base on Diego Garcia would have been untenable without signing the deal.
Defence Secretary John Healey said: “Without this deal, within weeks, we could face losing legal rulings and within just a few years the base would become inoperable”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a post on X, said Washington “welcomed” the agreement which secured the “long-term, stable, and effective operation of the joint U.S.-UK military facility at Diego Garcia, which is critical to regional and global security”.
What has the reaction been in Mauritius?
Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam said the deal was a “great victory for the Mauritian nation”.
Mauritian Attorney General Gavin Glover told the BBC: “Our country is elated that this 60-year struggle is finally over, especially for our brothers and sisters who were forced to leave their homes.”
Although Chagossians have differing views on the deal, one elderly woman at the headquarters of the Chagos Refugee Group headquarters in Mauritius, celebrated it. “Now I can finally go there… and die in peace,” she said.
