The Trump administration appears to disagree with the British government on allowing Mauritius to assume sovereignty over the Indian Ocean islands, Declassified UK reported.
Marco Rubio challenged Lammy over the decision, calling the deal "a serious threat" to US national security as it "threatens the US's critical military posture in the region" and gives an advantage to China, the Daily Mail noted.
Former British Home Secretary Priti Patel has lamented that the UK is "set to give away a key strategic asset in the Indian Ocean, ending more than 200 years of British sovereignty" .
The Mauritius deal would allow Britain to lease the base for 99 years, and then renew it. But, almost a century is not enough for some Conservatives. Lord Bellingham , a former foreign secretary, says the lease will “only encourage the Chinese” and therefore the UK should “opt for a sovereign island base in perpetuity” , Declassified UK noted.
In 2017, the United Nations voted to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an advisory opinion on the status of the islands. The court found that Britain violated international law when it created the "British Indian Ocean Territory" (BIOT) in 1965.
The ICJ stated that "as a result of the unlawful detachment of the Chagos Archipelago and its incorporation into a new colony, known as BIOT, the process of decolonisation of Mauritius had not been legally completed when Mauritius acceded to independence in 1968" , adding that the UK's administration of the Chagos Archipelago "constitutes a wrongful act entailing the international responsibility of that State" . It stated that the UK should end its control of the territory "as expeditiously as possible" .
Two years later, in 2021, the UN maritime court also ruled that Britain has no sovereignty over the islands.
According to Declassified UK , the UK's operation of the base at Diego Garcia was threatened because "courts were handing down rulings" and "a legally binding decision against the UK seemed inevitable" .
Once again, it will be non-Chagos Islanders who are likely to remain the main losers from any deal that emerges between Labour and Donald Trump .
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