LONDON: Britain said on Thursday it would give up sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, but under what President Joe Biden called a “historic agreement”, will keep a strategic Indian Ocean military base that is operated by the US.

The British government has been under pressure for decades to hand over the islands, but has resisted because of the Diego Garcia base’s key role for US operations in the Indian Ocean and Gulf region.

“For the first time in more than 50 years, the status of the base will be undisputed and legally secure,” the UK foreign ministry said. A joint British-Mauritius statement said the base would remain open on an “initial” 99-year lease.

Biden hailed the continuation of the base on Diego Garcia — the largest island in the chain — which was notably used during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Retains Diego Garcia, location of secretive US airbase that played key role in Afghanistan and Iraq wars

Rumours have long swirled about the uses of Diego Garcia, including that it has been used as a CIA black-site — a facility used to house and interrogate terror suspects.

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The UK government confirmed in 2008 that rendition flights carrying terror suspects had landed on the island in 2002, following years of assurances that they had not.

“I applaud the historic agreement and conclusion of the negotiations,” Biden said in a White House statement, adding that the site “plays a vital role in national, regional, and global security”.

Mauritius Foreign Minister Maneesh Gobin called the announcement “a day to remember” and a “seminal moment” in his country’s relationship with former colonial power Britain. British Prime Minister Keir Star­mer said he spoke to his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth and both hailed the agreement, according to Downing Street.

Turnaround

The deal comes after nearly two years of negotiations and marks a significant turnaround after decades of British dismissals of Mauritian sovereignty claims.

At the start of talks in 2023, the two sides agreed that the Diego Garcia military base would continue to operate whatever the outcome. In 2016, the UK extended the US lease of the military base for 20 years.

The joint British-Mauritius statement said the two would work on a treaty finalising the accord that would ensure Diego Garcia’s operation “well into the next century”.

The treaty could also pave the way for the return of Chagos islanders, who were expelled by the UK in the 1970s as the military base was developed.

But with no permanent population — and Diego Garcia the only habitable island and remaining off-limits as part of the deal — resettlement looks unlikely. Britain decided in 1965 to separate the Chagos islands from Mauritius and set up a military base there, which it leased to the United States. In doing so, it evicted thousands of islanders who have since mounted a series of legal claims for compensation in the British courts.

The joint statement claims the agreement will “address wrongs of the past” and “support the welfare of the Chagossians”, who were forced to live in exile, including in the UK.

But Chagossian Voices, representing islanders around the world, said they were excluded from the talks and only learned of the deal from the media. “The views of Chagossians, the indigenous inhabitants of the islands, have been consistently and deliberately ignored and we demand full inclusion in the drafting of the treaty,” they added.

Mounting pressure

Mauritius has claimed the archipelago — renamed British Indian Ocean Territory — since its independence in 1968 and garnered increasing international support.

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In 2019, the International Court of Justice advised Britain to hand over the remote islands. During the hearings, the UK apologised for the “shameful” eviction of islanders, but ignored the ICJ ruling at the time.

The same year, the UN General Assembly also voted a resolution calling on Britain to “withdraw its colonial administration”.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2024