What You Need to Know
Mauritius has set a deadline until the end of July for the UK to finalize a deal regarding the Chagos Islands. The agreement, which would transfer the islands to Mauritius while allowing the UK and US to maintain a military base, has been stalled due to objections from US President Donald Trump. The Mauritian government is prepared to explore all diplomatic avenues to reclaim the islands.
Africa-Press – Mauritius. Mauritius will wait up to the end of July for the UK to finalise a deal to hand over the Chagos Islands, an official said on Thursday.
The deadline comes after London put the agreement on hold following objections from US President Donald Trump.
Mauritius Attorney General Gavin Glover said, however, that the island nation had no insight into whether the US government would ultimately give the required approval for the deal to move ahead.
“We will give them until the end of July. We will wait until then, and at that point, the Mauritian government will have to decide on the way forward depending on what happens in the United Kingdom,” Glover told Anadolu News Agency.
“Spare no effort”
The Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam met with a British delegation for their first talks since the UK paused the deal, which would cede the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius while securing a 99-year lease to operate the joint UK-US military base on the island of Diego Garcia.
In February, Trump described the deal as a “big mistake” after having previously said it was “the best that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer would get”.
Mauritius Foreign Minister Dhananjay Ramful, earlier, vowed to “spare no effort” to reclaim the strategic Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, whose main island of Diego Garcia hosts a US-UK military base, AFP news agency reported.
His remarks come after Britain indicated it would shelve plans to hand back the islands unless the United States supports the deal.
US President Donald Trump has previously criticised the agreement, describing it as “an act of great stupidity”.
“We will spare no effort to seize any diplomatic or legal avenue to complete the decolonisation process in this part of the Indian Ocean,” Ramful said at an Indian Ocean Conference held in Mauritius.
The Chagos Islands have been a point of contention since the UK established a military base on Diego Garcia in the 1960s, displacing the local population. The islands were administered by the UK, but Mauritius has long claimed sovereignty over them, seeking to decolonize the territory. Recent discussions have intensified as the Mauritian government aims to reclaim its rights amid geopolitical tensions involving the US and UK. The strategic significance of the islands, particularly for military operations, complicates the negotiations.
