(Bloomberg) -- Britain struck a deal allowing it to keeping control of a strategically important UK-US military base in the Indian Ocean for another century, while ceding sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
Under the agreement, which has been under negotiation for two years and was backed by US President Joe Biden, the UK will be authorized to exercise Mauritius’s sovereign rights over Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated — for an initial period of 99 years, according to a joint statement by the two governments. Chagossians will be allowed to return to the islands, except for Diego Garcia, more than half a century after their forced removal.
In a phone call Thursday with Mauritian leader Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the deal would “protect the continued operation of the UK-US military base on Diego Garcia” and stressed “his steadfast duty to national and global security which underpinned the political agreement,” his office said in a separate statement.
The deal aims to draw a line under a long-running territorial dispute complicated by the importance of the US Air Force base established in the 1970s and used in more recent military campaigns in the Middle East and Afghanistan. But by ceding sovereignty of the strategically important archipelago to another country, Starmer’s Labour administration immediately drew criticism from political opponents.
Mauritius — which has close economic ties with India — has been battling to regain control off the archipelago since it was separated by the UK into a colony in 1965. Eight years later, the military base was established on Diego Garcia, with about 1,360 Chagossians forced to leave that island and two others. Most ended up in the UK, Mauritius and the Seychelles, where Human Rights Watch says they suffered discrimination and were given little financial assistance to rebuild their lives.
Jugnauth called it a “historic day” for Mauritius. “Today, 56 years after our independence, our decolonization is complete,” he said in a broadcast statement.
The deal is subject to the finalization of a treaty and supporting legal documents, according to the joint statement. Britain acknowledged the “wrongs of the past” that Chagossians were subjected to, and agreed to capitalize a trust fund to benefit them. The amount of compensation to Chagossians and Mauritius remains to be settled as details in the wider treaty and accompanying agreements are ironed out. Under the agreement, Mauritius will be able to put in place a resettlement program in two of the islands, but not Diego Garcia.
There was a backlash in Britain, where all four contenders to lead the main opposition Conservative Party criticized the deal, in posts on X. Current front-runner Robert Jenrick called it a “dangerous capitulation,”while Kemi Badenoch said the decision “weakens UK influence across the world.” Former Security Minister Tom Tugendhat branded it a “shameful retreat,” and former Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said it was “weak, weak, weak!”
But Biden welcomed the deal, calling it “a clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes.”
In a worst case scenario, the UK government believed that there was a real risk of losing the military base without the current deal. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2019 that the 1965 takeover of the islands had been unlawful, a ruling affirmed by the United Nations General Assembly.
“All Mauritian governments have always agreed that the US could continue to operate a military base on Diego Garcia,” Jugnauth said. “We have agreed on that” too.
--With assistance from Alex Wickham.
(Updates with Mauritius PM comments starting in sixth paragraph.)
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