(Bloomberg)-The connected kingdom agreed to advance the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of a strategic military base on one of the islands and ending long-term negotiations that became the point of controversy for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
As part of an agreement with Mauritius, the United Kingdom pays an average of 101 million GBP ($ 136 million) for the continuing use of the device annually, Starmer on Thursday told news briefing in the first confirmation of the Conditions of the Pact. The United Kingdom said that the net current value of payments is 3.4 billion GBPs, due to the way government accounting measures long -term investment.
The completion of the agreement will achieve the key goal of foreign policy for Starmer because the uncertainty about the future of the base at Diego Garcia, a strategically valuable British facility that provides rapid access to East Africa, Indo-Pacific, the South China Sea and the Gulf. It was used during American campaigns in the Middle East and Afghanistan and also hosts a critical satellite communication system.
“The base is one of the most important contributions that we contribute to our security relationship with the United States,” Starmer said at briefing. “We had to act now because the base was endangered.”
British and American control of the base was questioned by the British plan to advance the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, followed by a decision of the International Court in 2019 that the British continuing administration of the islands was illegal. Mauritius, a nation of about 1.3 million people, has strengthened links with China in recent years and supported us concerns about Beijing’s expanding military and economic influence in the region.
The agreement on the islands of Chagos was controversial for Starmer, given the large amounts of the money that Britain would pay to Mauritius to maintain control of Diego Garcii. The main British opposition conservative party and the reform of Nigel Farage regularly attacked Starmer over the agreement, and Farage had previously called it “surrender”.
An agreement announced on Thursday ends six months of further interviews between the two countries after the new Mauritory government led by Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam expressed dissatisfaction with the initial agreement announced on October 4.
“It’s a great victory for us and the Mauritian nation,” said Ramgooom. “It completes the process of decolonization that began in 1968.”
However, the announcement of the agreement was detained on Thursday by a challenge at the last minute from the British state state accessory at the last minute, which claimed that the agreement would violate the rights of the indigenous people of the Chagos Islands who did not properly participate in the negotiations.
The legal challenge was the last chance for the Chagossiana “to secure access to his homeland”, said lawyers for applicants Bertrice Pompe in court filing.
“Heavy obstacles facing the British National Chagossians who do not hold the Mauritivian nationality in terms of participation in the future of their homeland, it is necessary to deal with,” they said.
However, the case was thrown away after the government claimed that it had interfered with national security and foreign relations.
In 1965, Britain set up Chagos Islands as a separate territory, paid Mauritius 3 million GBP for compensation, and agreed that the US would have a military base for a discount on nuclear missiles and common use of equipment.
About 1,360 Chagossians were excluded from the largest island of Diego Garcia to relax the way for the base that began in 1973. It ended up most in the UK, Mauritius and Seychelles, where they suffered discrimination and received little help in reconstructing their lives, according to human rights.
The Chagos Islands were also a point of interest in diplomacy in the UK-USA due to previous question marks about whether US President Donald Trump supports the agreement. This speculation was terminated at the beginning of this year when Trump said he was “tilted” with the decision and spoke with Starmer at Starmer at the White House.
-S assistance by William Selway and Alister Bull.
(Update with reaction and context starting in the fourth paragraph.)
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