The Chagos agreement explained | The Week

The Authorities introduced that the UK will hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, in a contentious deal meant to finish years of authorized wrangling concerning the Indian Ocean archipelago.

In a joint assertion with Mauritian PM Pravind Jugnauth, Keir Starmer mentioned that Mauritius will take management of the islands, whereas permitting Britain and the US to maintain working a army base on the most important island, Diego Garcia, underneath an “preliminary” 99-year lease. That island will even be exempt from plans to resettle displaced Chagossians.

A group of seven atolls comprised of greater than 60 islands, the Chagos Islands have been managed by Britain since 1814. As soon as administered as a part of the British colony of Mauritius, they had been carved off in 1965, earlier than Mauritian independence. Britain’s sovereignty has lengthy been contested; however critics of the deal mentioned that ceding the islands to Mauritius may enable China to achieve foothold within the Indo-Pacific, undermining Britain’s safety.

An act of ‘pure folly’?

This deal goes some option to addressing a grave injustice, mentioned The Guardian. In 1967, Britain started forcibly displacing the Chagossians to make approach for its army base. The islanders (notoriously described by one UK official as “just a few Tarzans and Man Fridays”) have been campaigning for a proper to return for years. They gained an important victory in 2019, when the Worldwide Court docket of Justice dominated that the UK’s “occupation” of the archipelago was unlawful; two years later, a UN courtroom agreed. That left Britain with few authorized routes to maintain the islands, mentioned The Customary. The then-Tory authorities duly opened talks with Mauritius in 2022, paving the way in which for this smart deal.

Giving up the islands is “an act of pure folly”, mentioned The Occasions. The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), because the archipelago is understood, solely quantities to 23 sq. miles. However the base there has helped safeguard the UK’s safety for 60 years. In ceding management to Mauritius, which is being courted by Beijing because it seems to be for bases of its personal within the Indian Ocean, the PM is placing “anti-colonialist sentiment” above the nationwide curiosity.

China’s affect

“I’m virtually too offended to jot down concerning the abandonment of the British Indian Ocean Territory,” mentioned Daniel Hannan in The Every day Telegraph. Mauritius has by no means exercised sovereignty over the islands, which lie 1,300 miles away from it; and when Britain hived them off, it raised few objections (and accepted a £3m “sweetener”).

The evacuation of the islands was a “real tragedy”. These Chagossians who had been eliminated to Mauritius within the Seventies had been handled terribly, though Britain paid Mauritius a big sum to assist their resettlement; many ended up in slums. Others moved to the UK (certainly, there are extra Chagossians in Crawley than there have been on Diego Garcia within the late Sixties). And whereas some lobbied me, as their MEP, to be allowed to return house, none demanded the islands be given to Mauritius. But someway, it has managed to accumulate them. Did Beijing push it to start out agitating for sovereignty over this distant atoll? We could by no means know; however it leaves Britain having to pay to retain a base that has proved its worth to our strategic pursuits again and again. Diego Garcia performed a significant position within the marketing campaign to bomb Saddam Hussain out of Kuwait, and in preventing the Taliban ten years later.

China has some affect over Mauritius, mentioned Cahal Milmo in The i Paper. It’s the greatest importer into the nation, and its companies have constructed a bunch of infrastructure initiatives there, together with a serious airport terminal funded by Chinese language loans. Beijing appears to view the island as a “gateway” for inward funding into Africa. However Mauritius is one in every of only some small nations within the area to not have joined China’s Belt and Street Initiative, and is much nearer politically to India than to every other state: Hinduism is its most practised faith, and India is its largest export market. As China is India’s rival, Mauritius is unlikely to let Beijing open a naval base on the Chagos Islands, mentioned Sean O’Grady in The Unbiased. The deal at hand over the islands shouldn’t be a strategic catastrophe. It’s higher described as “a long-overdue tidying up of an anomaly”.

What subsequent?

The settlement ceding management of the islands, which the Authorities hopes to ratify in 2025, has been severely criticised by a gaggle representing the Chagossian diaspora. The Chagossians are offended that they had been excluded from the talks; some say that they’d prefer to return to the islands, however not in the event that they’re managed by Mauritius.

The Conservative MP James Cleverly was criticised by different Tories for having kicked off the talks with Mauritius as international secretary in 2022. Tom Tugendhat MP mentioned it was a shame that the method began “underneath our watch”.