The United Kingdom officially agreed to switch sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in Might 2025. With the Trump management’s particular fortify, this transfer ended one of the most longest-running territorial disputes in Britain’s ultimate out of the country territories.
The verdict has been hailed by means of some as a long-overdue act of decolonisation, condemned by means of others as a strategic misstep. Impulsively, Donald Trump has now reignited the talk, branding the deal an “act of great stupidity”.
Why has this small chain of far off Indian Ocean islands turn into this type of flashpoint?
The roots of the disaster lie within the dismantling of Britain’s empire within the Sixties. The Chagos archipelago was once traditionally administered as a part of colonial Mauritius, then a British colony. In 1965, 3 years sooner than Mauritian independence, the United Kingdom separated Chagos from Mauritius to create a brand new territory: the British Indian Ocean Territory.
The introduction of a brand new colony was once an act formed by means of chilly conflict technique. Mounting financial and strategic pressures within the past due Sixties – together with the devaluation of the pound in 1967 and the Labour executive’s 1968 choice to withdraw British forces east of the Suez Canal – in combination curtailed Britain’s regional defence function within the Indian Ocean.
As Britain retreated “east of Suez”, it nonetheless sought after a safe army foothold within the Indian Ocean, specifically one that may be used collectively with the USA. Diego Garcia, the biggest island in Chagos, was once very best: remoted, strategically situated between Africa and Southeast Asia, close to primary industry routes and in a position to web hosting a significant naval and air facility.
The prices had been met by means of the United Kingdom, with £3 million paid to Mauritius to cede the islands. However the cost of this technique was once paid by means of the Chagossians. Between 1967 and the early Seventies, the islanders had been forcibly got rid of from their houses and relocated to Mauritius and Seychelles. Their elimination was once brutal: households had been separated, livelihoods destroyed, and a definite island neighborhood successfully erased.
Why the United Kingdom modified path
By means of the twenty first century, Britain’s prison place was once more and more untenable. In 2019, the World Court docket of Justice dominated that the separation of the Chagos archipelago from Mauritius were illegal and that the United Kingdom must “terminate” its management “as rapidly as possible”. The UN Normal Meeting subsidized this view with an awesome however non-binding vote.
Mauritius has constantly argued that the islands are a stolen a part of its nationwide territory, and due to this fact their decolonisation is incomplete. Over the years, this example received traction – Britain’s endured keep an eye on of Chagos got here to symbolise the incomplete industry of empire.
By means of 2022, James Cleverly, then the United Kingdom’s international secretary, opened negotiations with Mauritius to “resolve all outstanding issues” over the archipelago. In October 2024, the Labour executive underneath Keir Starmer concluded {that a} negotiated agreement was once preferable to many years extra prison wrangling.
The deal struck with Mauritius did two issues: it transferred sovereignty over the archipelago to Mauritius, whilst securing a 99-year rent on Diego Garcia to permit the prevailing US-UK army base to proceed running at a price of £3.4 billion.
On paper, this secure British (and by means of extension US) strategic pursuits within the area whilst gratifying the prison argument from the UN. On the other hand, whilst the deal was once to begin with supported by means of the USA, the deal has come underneath assault from different UK political events, and more and more jars with Trump’s imaginative and prescient of the arena.
Why the islands topic strategically
The importance of Chagos is its location. Diego Garcia is likely one of the maximum vital western army installations outdoor Europe and North The usa. It’s been described as “an all but indispensable platform” for US pursuits within the Center East and East Africa, with B-52 bombers just lately used from the bottom to strike Yemen.
In an technology of renewed great-power competition, the island’s price has greater. As China expands its naval presence within the Indian Ocean, western governments see Diego Garcia as a counterweight. On the other hand, critics of the deal have raised questions in regards to the China-Mauritius dating, arguing this could permit China a a very powerful foothold within the area.
For the United Kingdom, the bottom additionally underpins its declare to nonetheless be a significant army actor past Europe. Because of this, sovereignty switch was once sparsely controlled. Britain was once no longer leaving behind the bottom, however making sure an association that saved western army get entry to intact whilst disposing of the colonial stain.
Keir Starmer provides a press convention at the Chagos Islands deal in Might 2025.
Andy Rain/EPA-EFE
On one degree, the Chagos deal looks as if a type of decolonisation. Britain authorized world legislation, said a ancient improper and negotiated a agreement.
But this is occurring at a second when world politics is turning into extra openly imperial in taste. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s assertive regional ambitions and Trump’s expansionist rhetoric about Greenland all recommend an international much less ruled by means of legislation and extra by means of chronic.
In that context, Britain’s try to “do the right thing” over Chagos dangers taking a look out of step. It displays a rules-based worldview this is underneath power.
This creates a predicament for the British executive, which on January 20 vowed to “never compromise on national security”. The federal government defended the deal, pronouncing it needed to give up the Chagos Islands since the army base was once “under threat” from world prison motion.
Britain is now not an imperial sovereign with uncontested keep an eye on over far away territories. This is a mid-sized chronic that should steadiness historical past, legislation, alliances and technique.
This example additionally exposes Britain’s endured dependence on the USA for its world army clout and financial benefits. With out the USA, Diego Garcia can be a ways much less vital. America considerably supplies lots of the base’s army capacity. Trump’s grievance underscores a deeper vulnerability: Britain’s post-imperial identification stays tethered to American chronic.
