Britain’s planned transfer of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius was thrown into doubt after the Trump administration withdrew support for the deal.
LONDON (AP) – Britain’s deal to hand over Mauritius Chagos Islands that are home to a strategic UK-US military base is on indefinite hold because US President Donald Trump’s administration has withdrew its support for the agreement.
The British government admitted on Saturday that legislation to ratify the Indian Ocean Islands Agreement has run out of time in Parliament.
It is the last consequence of difficult relationships between Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government and the Trump administration.
Trump initially supported the deal, but changed his mind in January, calling a deal to transfer sovereignty of the islands, home to the joint military base in Diego Garcia, “an act of utter stupidity” in a social media post.
The UK put progress on the bill on hold and the government now admits it will run out of time to become law before the current session of Parliament ends in the coming weeks. It is not expected to be included in the list of bills announced by King Charles III for the next session of Parliament, which begins on May 13.
Despite British disappointment with the U.S.’s shift in stance, officials still hope the deal can be revived.
“Diego Garcia is a key strategic military asset for both the UK and the US,” the British government said in a statement. “Ensuring its long-term operational security is and will continue to be our priority – that’s the whole reason for the deal.
“We continue to believe that the agreement is the best way to protect the long-term future of the base, but we have always said that we will only proceed with the agreement if it has the support of the US. We are continuing to engage with the US and Mauritius.”
Simon McDonald, who was head of Britain’s Foreign Office until 2020, said the government had “no choice” but to put the deal on ice.
“When the president of the United States is openly hostile, the government has to rethink. So this deal, this treaty is going to go into deep freeze for now,” he told the BBC.
Strategic military base in focus
The remote chain of more than 60 islands off the tip of India, south of the Maldives, has been under British control since 1814.
A military base on Diego Garcia, one of the islands, has supported US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan and as a base for US bombers in the US-Israel war against Iran.
Starmer initially blocked US aircraft from using British air bases for strikes on Iran. He later agreed to allow the United States to use bases in England and Diego Garcia to strike Iran’s missile sites, but not other targets.
Trump has scorned the United States’ NATO allies for their reluctance to join the war. He scoffed at Starmer last month as “not Winston Churchill” and mocked the Royal Navy.
Under the agreement reached between the United Kingdom and Mauritius after several years of negotiations, Britain would lease the Diego Garcia base for at least 99 years.
The Starmer government says the deal protects the base from international legal challenges. In recent years, the United Nations and its high court have asked Britain to return the islands to Mauritius.
Britain’s opposition Conservative Party and UK Reform opposed the deal, saying giving up the islands put them at risk of interference from China and Russia. They have pushed the Trump administration to withdraw its support.
Islanders who were displaced from Diego Garcia in the 1960s and 1970s to make way for the base say they were not consulted and worry the deal will make it harder for them to return home.
About 10,000 displaced Chagossians and their descendants now live mainly in Britain, Mauritius and the Seychelles. Some have fought unsuccessfully in UK courts for years for the right to go home.
By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press
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