Britain on Thursday signed a deal giving sovereignty to the strategically located Chagos Islands to Mauritius yet retaining control of a US-UK military base as it claimed China along with Russia and Iran sought to derail the agreement.
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British Defence Secretary John Healey at a press conference with Prime Minister Keir Starmer said allies including the US, India, Australia, New Zealand and Canada supported the agreement, while China, Russia, and Iran wanted “to see this deal collapse”.
“The value of this deal is beyond doubt,” Healey added.
Starmer described the multibillion-dollar pact securing British control of the US-UK military base on Diego Garcia for 99 years as an “essential investment in our national security”.
Diego Garcia is the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The islands were once part of colonised Mauritius and controlled by Britain after Mauritius gained independence in 1968.
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Thereafter Britain leased the archipelago to the US for use as a military base, forcibly removing up to 2,000 residents to make way for the facility. Construction of the facility began in 1971 and was completed in 1986.
