UK returns Chagos Islands to Mauritius, keeps Diego Garcia base

Britain has said it will give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a deal that would allow people displaced decades ago to return home.

Britain made the announcement on Thursday, but said that it will retain control over Diego Garcia, a highly secretive strategic airbase in the Indian Ocean jointly operated with the United States.

Diego Garcia was at the core of a long-running territorial dispute between the UK and Mauritius. Negotiations had ramped up in recent weeks ahead of the announcement.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the deal on Thursday, saying it would secure the effective operation of the airbase into the next century.

"Diego Garcia is the site of a joint US-UK military facility that plays a vital role in national, regional, and global security," he said in a statement.

British Foreign Minister David Lammy said that the contested sovereignty of the islands and ongoing legal challenges meant the long-term future of the Diego Garcia site had been under threat.

"Today's agreement secures this vital military base for the future. It will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security," Lammy said in a statement.

Expelled islanders

Britain, which has controlled the region since 1814, detached the Chagos Islands in 1965 from Mauritius — a former colony that became independent three years later — to create the British Indian Ocean Territory.

In the early 1970s, it evicted almost 2,000 residents to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for an airbase on the largest island, Diego Garcia, which it had leased to the United States in 1966.

A non-binding resolution in the United Nations General Assembly in 2019 said Britain should give up control of the islands and that it had wrongfully forced the population to leave.

In 2016, Britain's Foreign Ministry extended Diego Garcia's lease until 2036, and declared the expelled islanders would not be allowed to go back.

The deal marks a change of approach to the issue from new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has said his government would be, in part, defined by a respect for international law after his Labour Party won power in July.

"He underscored his steadfast duty to national and global security which underpinned the political agreement reached today," Starmer's office said in a readout of a call with Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth.

Mauritius's foreign affairs ministry and prime ministe r's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

However, some in Britain's opposition Conservative Party criticised the agreement.

"Weak, weak, weak!," former foreign minister James Cleverly, who is running to be the next Conservative leader, said on X.

Under the agreement Britain will be authorised to exercise sovereign rights over Diego Garcia in order to ensure the continued operation of the base for an initial 99 years.