Britain · updated 1h ago · 3 min read
Britain Scraps Chagos Deal With Mauritius After Donald Trump Criticizes, Wes Streeting Says
UK reviews Chagos deal after Trump criticisms; US opposition cited by Streeting. Deal would cede sovereignty of Chagos to Mauritius while UK keeps Diego Garcia lease.
Whether the payment pause is “at least £120m” vs unspecified/previous annual figures.
2 of 3 outlets skipped it: chagos deal is signed but not ratified; treaty obligations discussion under Vienna Convention..
The Telegraph was read line by line by the Watchdog: 2.8. See the score →
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BBC
“pay an average of £101m ($136m) per year to lease back a joint UK-US military base there”Read the original ↗
Highlights different emphases on the money figure range despite the same underlying pause.
Review after Trump veto
Britain scrapped the planned return of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in its current form after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the deal, and Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said in a BBC interview that it could not be implemented over the archipelago located in the Indian Ocean without U.S. support.B
“‘This deal as it is currently constituted can’t go ahead without American support,’ Streeting told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.”
Streeting told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “This deal as it is currently constituted can’t go ahead without American support,” and he said the UK had to get to a version that also had the agreement of the government of Mauritius.B
Trump told reporters at the UN General Assembly fringe meeting, “I don’t support it. I think it’s terrible,” after meeting Prime Minister Andy Burnham on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Burnham later said he had “inherited the situation” and told Trump “that we will work to find that resolution between the different sides,” while the UK government accepted that progress was extremely unlikely unless Trump changed his mind.
The UK signed a treaty to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while retaining control of the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia under a 99-year lease, but Streeting said payments worth at least £120m to Mauritius were on hold given the deal could not go ahead without U.S. support.
Officials seek a fix
UK officials said the Chagos Islands deal was on hold for as long as Donald Trump objects to it, with no immediate signs it could be adapted to suit the U.S. president. One UK official told the Guardian, “Until the president changes his mind there will not be any progress,” and another official said, “It’s not back to the drawing board, as we do need to find a diplomatic solution to this.” TStreeting told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the UK was trying to safeguard the long-term future of the base on Diego Garcia, describing it as “one of the most sensitive national security assets we have anywhere in the world.”
Trump’s opposition was tied in the sources to a wider deterioration of relations with Keir Starmer over the lack of UK support for the U.S. attacks on Iran, and the Guardian said Trump changed his mind amid that deterioration. TBurnham told broadcasters that he was “confident” the UK would be able to find a solution to revive the idea, while the Guardian said the UK government had previously made clear that Washington’s approval was a prerequisite for the plan.T
Money, sovereignty, and base
The sources tied the review to the structure of the 99-year lease for Diego Garcia and the payments to Mauritius, with the Guardian saying Mauritius was set to receive £165m for three years and £120m a year from the fourth year. Streeting told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that payments worth at least £120m to Mauritius were on hold, and he told BBC Breakfast that no money would be handed over to Mauritius “at this stage” while officials review the agreement. The BBC said the original agreement would see the UK cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius and pay an average of £101m ($136m) per year to lease back a joint UK-US military base there, prized for its strategic location in the Indian Ocean.B
“Mauritius was set to receive £165m for three years and £120m a year from the fourth year.”
The Guardian said the UK government had estimated the overall cost of the agreement at about £3.4bn, while the BBC said the deal was paused indefinitely in April after Trump pulled his support. The Guardian also said the International Court of Justice in The Hague and the United Nations General Assembly support Mauritius’s claim to the Chagos Archipelago, and it described the dispute as centered on the transfer of sovereignty to Mauritius while keeping the Diego Garcia base under UK-US control.T