Following Trump’s victory, is the UK going to draw back on its decision to hand over Chagos Islands to Africa?
For a very long time Chagos, which was handed to Mauritius, was a British Overseas Territory and hosts one of America’s largest overseas military bases at Diego Garcia.
According to some whispers , Biden’s administration pushed Britain to surrender the archipelago to Africa out of fear that clinging on it would result in the US losing its military base.
Immediately the deal was made public, Biden’s administration issued a statement stating that the agreement showed that “countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes.”
Even though the deal hands Mauritius control of the archipelago, the UK still retains a lease of 99 years over Diego Garcia (the largest Island) in order to allow US and British forces to continue using the base.
However within the corridors of Westminster London, the deal is strongly being opposed by politicians especially those from the Conservatives and far right groups who feel Chagos is a territory of the UK and should remain as such.
Similar sentiments had been expressed by senior members of the US Republican Party who argued that surrendering Chagos to Mauritius, would expose Diego Garcia military base to Chinese espionage because the Mauritian government is very close to Beijing and therefore can’t be trusted with administering the archipelago.
With Trump now in the White House, it remains to be seen whether he will convince Keir Starmer to abandon the deal. Any treaty has to be brought to the British Parliament to become legally binding. And Chagos deal is yet to be brought to parliament which means it can still be discarded.
