Donald Trump ‘can have the ultimate say’ on Starmer’s Chagos deal as US President-Elect’s group tells Sir Keir to delay announcement
The UK government confirmed Wednesday that it will not finalize a deal to hand over sovereignty of the contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius until President-elect Donald Trump‘s administration is consulted.
The governments of Britain and Mauritius have been negotiating in recent months to complete an agreement to settle the future of the disputed Indian Ocean archipelago, which is home to a strategically important UK-US naval and bomber base.
But the agreement was opposed by Trump and his supporters. The president-elect’s pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, warned last year that the deal posed ‘a serious threat’ to US national security.
The military base, located on Diego Garcia, the largest of the chain of tropical islands off the tip of India, has supported US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2008, the US acknowledged it also had been used for clandestine rendition flights of terror suspects.
The official spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Wednesday it was ‘obviously now right’ for Trump’s administration to consider any deal.
‘It is perfectly reasonable for the new US administration to actually consider the detail and we will obviously have those discussions with them,’ he said. ‘We will only agree to a deal that is in the UK’s best interests and protects our national security.’
Media reports this week had suggested that officials from Britain and Mauritius were hurrying to complete the deal before Trump enters the White House.
A deal between Mauritius and the UK over the Chagos Islands will have to wait for Donald Trump’s approval
The military base, located on Diego Garcia has supported US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan
Keir Starmer’s team said it was ‘obviously now right’ for Trump’s administration to consider any deal
Britain split the islands away from Mauritius, a former British colony, in 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence, and called the Chagos archipelago the British Indian Ocean Territory.
In the 1960s and 1970s Britain evicted up to 2,000 people from the islands so the US military could build the Diego Garcia base.
Mauritius has long contested Britain’s claim to the archipelago, and in recent years the United Nations and its top court have urged Britain to return the Chagos to Mauritius.
Britain agreed to do so in a draft deal in October, but that has been delayed by a change of government in Mauritius and reported quarrels over how much the UK should pay for the lease of the Diego Garcia airbase.
A statement issued by the Mauritian government on Wednesday said the Cabinet had been ‘informed of developments’ and that talks in London will continue.
At Prime Minister’s Questions this week, Kemi Badenoch took Sir Keir to task over the cost of the Chagos deal.
Sir Keir was attacked over claims Labour is poised to pay nearly £9billion to Mauritius for a 99-year lease of the Diego Garcia military base.
‘The Chancellor (Rachel Reeves) is apparently promising to be ruthless in reducing spending. Let me suggest something he should cut,’ the told the PM.
Britain evicted up to 2,000 people from the islands so the US military could build the Diego Garcia base
‘There is no way that we should be giving up British territory in Chagos. He is rushing a deal which will be disastrous and will land taxpayers with a multi-billion pound bill.
‘Why does he the PM think British people should pay to surrender something that is already ours?’
Sir Keir responded: ‘We inherited a situation where the long-term operation of a vital military base was under threat because of legal challenges.
‘The negotiations were started under the last government. The then-foreign secretary came to this House to say why he was starting negotiations and what he wanted to achieve.
‘He said the aim was to ‘ensure the continued effective operation of the base’. That is precisely this deal has delivered.’
But Ms Badenoch hit back: ‘There is no one he can blame for this dud deal except himself.’
