The UK will hand over sovereignty of the remote Chagos Islands to Mauritius after a decades-long dispute.

The deal to transfer the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius includes the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia, home to a military base used by the UK and the US that plays a crucial role in the region’s stability and international security.

Under the agreement, the base will remain under UK and US jurisdiction for at least the next 99 years.

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The UK government said the treaty would “address wrongs of the past and demonstrate the commitment of both parties to support the welfare” of Chagossians – the native people of the islands.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the move, saying it was “mutually beneficial”, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed it as a “win for diplomacy”.

Several leading Conservatives have called the decision “weak”, with former security minister Tom Tugendhat saying it is a “shameful retreat undermining our security and leaving our allies exposed”.

Concerns have been raised a future Mauritian government will not adhere to the agreement and will allow China, which is heavily invested in Mauritius, to take over the base.

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Map: OpenStreetMap

Package of financial support

A statement from the Mauritian and UK governments said Mauritius is now “free to implement a programme of resettlement” on the islands, other than Diego Garcia, and the UK will provide money and other support to Chagossians who had to leave.

The UK will also provide a “package of financial support” to Mauritius, including annual payments for the next 99 years and will provide funding for an infrastructure partnership.

Addressing the people of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth, the prime minister, said: “There are some people who thought that it might have been impossible for a small country like Mauritius to have achieved justice against superpowers.

“Despite all this – we remained true to our convictions to end colonisation in our country.

“Today, 56 years after our independence, our decolonisation is complete.”

Speaking to Sky News, foreign minister Maneesh Gobin also said the deal marked a “historic day” that was good for two “sovereign nations”.

On the question of China’s influence, the foreign minister said it was “unfortunate” that the country kept coming up in the discussion of the Chagos Islands.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “This government inherited a situation where the long-term, secure operation of the Diego Garcia military base was under threat, with contested sovereignty and ongoing legal challenges.

“Today’s agreement secures this vital military base for the future.

“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.”

History of the Chagos Islands

The Chagos Islands had been home to the Chagossians from the 1700s, brought as slaves from Africa and India by the French.

The islands had been a dependency of Mauritius when it was a French colony, but the UK claimed the Chagos Islands as part of Mauritius in the early 19th Century.

Mauritius gained independence from the UK in 1968 and since then has been trying to claim the Chagos archipelago as Mauritian.

In the late 1960s, the US asked the UK to expel everyone from the archipelago so they could build a naval support facility on the largest island, Diego Garcia. It is leased to the US but operates as a joint UK-US base.

Since 1971, only US military employees have been allowed access. Chagossians living on the island, and other islands, were removed to Mauritius or the Seychelles. The expulsions are regarded as one of the most shameful parts of Britain’s modern colonial history and Chagossians have spent decades fighting to return.

In 2010, Mauritius started proceedings against the UK to challenge the legality of the archipelago, and compensation and repatriation of former inhabitants. Mauritius took it to the International Court of Justice in 2018.

The UK government has offered British Overseas Territories Citizenship to Chagossians since 2002, with about 3,500 becoming citizens – most living in Crawley, West Sussex, near Gatwick Airport.

Since 2021, about 89 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers have arrived on Diego Garcia but the UK government has argued the refugee convention does not apply there so they remain in limbo in a makeshift refugee camp.

Mauritius has repeatedly stated the Chagos archipelago is part of its territory and the United Kingdom claim is a violation of United Nations resolutions banning the dismemberment of colonial territories before independence.

In 2019, the UN General Assembly said the Chagos Islands “forms an integral part of the territory of Mauritius”, although it was not legally binding.

In November 2022, then British foreign secretary James Cleverly announced the UK and Mauritius had started sovereignty negotiations with Mauritius.

In December 2023, when David Cameron was foreign secretary, the talks were discontinued after a paper by three legal academics said transferring the islands would be a “major self-inflected blow” for the UK.

The Labour government picked the talks back up and have now agreed to give the islands back to Mauritius, while the US and UK keep the military base.

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Fuel tanks at the edge of a military airstrip on Diego Garcia.File pic: Reuters
Image:
Fuel tanks at the edge of a military airstrip on Diego Garcia. File pic: Reuters

‘Through diplomacy, countries can overcome challenges’

The US president welcomed the move, saying: “I applaud the historic agreement.

“It is a clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes.”

The agreement is subject to the finalisation of a treaty and supporting legal instruments, with both Mauritius and the UK committing to complete “as quickly as possible”.

Former foreign secretary James Cleverly accused the government of being “weak, weak, weak”.

He said: “Labour lied to get into office. Said they’d be whiter than white, said they wouldn’t put up taxes, said they’d stand up to the EU, said that they’d be patriotic. All lies!”

‘A strategic disaster’

Mr Tugendhat said the Foreign Office had “negotiated against Britain’s interest” and it was “disgraceful that these negotiations started under our watch” – in a dig at Mr Cleverly who was foreign secretary when negotiations began in 2022.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said “giving up the Chagos Islands is a strategic disaster” and claimed the US “will be furious and Beijing delighted”.

“Labour are making the world a more dangerous place,” he said.