Keir Starmer has made a mess of things.
In October 2024, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his intention to cede the Chagos Islands — an archipelago in the Indian Ocean that includes the island Diego Garcia and its joint British/American military base — to Mauritius. This move blindsided both his own and other parties, as it had not been discussed in the run-up to the election just three months earlier. Now, the House of Lords has intervened to delay the handover. With President Donald Trump recently having announced his opposition to the deal, the U.S. should now use this delay to stop it altogether.
While it may seem an internal British matter, it is anything but. Mauritius is a strong Chinese ally: Its trade with China has grown rapidly since the two countries signed a free trade agreement (China’s first such agreement with an African country), and China is now its top import partner. While not formally part of the Belt and Road Initiative, it still receives similar Chinese infrastructure investments. To Chinese investors and businesses, Mauritius serves as a gateway to the African market.
Under the deal, the U.K. would lease the Diego Garcia base — and not for free. Britain, which under Margaret Thatcher sent most of its surface fleet on a mission 8,000 miles away to retake the Falkland Islands after the Argentinian invasion, is now under Starmer paying for the privilege of giving away territory. In fact, one hang-up that has delayed the deal has been the Mauritians’ repeated demands that Britain pay them more.
While the treaty does not allow Mauritius to lease any nearby island to China, this is hard to prevent in practice. Further, Mauritius is allowed to permit anyone — not just descendants of the islanders expelled during the construction of the base in the 1960s and ’70s — to resettle to any island save Diego Garcia, without British or American vetting. There is thus nothing to prevent Chinese spies from taking up residence nearby.
Under the deal, foreign vessels would be able to sail closer to the islands than now. Although officially this includes only nonmilitary vessels, it is easy to see how China could circumvent this, using civilian vessels for the purpose of spying or interference. At a time when China is flagrantly violating previous agreements with the U.K. over Hong Kong, and possibly preparing to invade Taiwan, ceding the Chagos Islands to Mauritius would be giving China a reward it has not earned and would send a dangerous signal.
Given the importance of the base, which played a major role in the Gulf War as well as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, this should be a cause of concern for Americans.
Starmer has hailed the agreement as a way to “secure” the Diego Garcia base, claiming that the U.K. and U.S. might otherwise have lost it completely. This is patently absurd. Mauritius does not keep a standing army and could never take the islands by force.
Rather, what Starmer is referring to is an opinion issued by the United Nations’ International Court of Justice in 2019, which ruled that Mauritius was the rightful owner of the islands. This opinion was nonbinding and advisory, but Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, feels duty-bound to enforce it in the name of the “rules-based international order.” --->READ MORE HERE (or HERE)
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Nearly a year after it promised Mauritius the transfer of the entire Chagos Archipelago, the United Kingdom appears to be backing out amid backlash from US President Donald Trump, who called it a “stupid decision.”
The agreement, originally signed in May 2025, stated that sovereignty over the island would be transferred to the Indian Ocean state of Mauritius, which owns the archipelago, in accordance with the 2019 ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). But the UK would retain control of the largest island, Diego Garcia, by leasing it back for a 99-year term.
Interestingly, the deal received a green light from the Trump administration following months of talks with the US, which holds a military base in Diego Garcia.
However, the 2025 deal immediately sparked controversy, as critics in the US argued that the transfer could weaken Western influence and pave the way for China to gain a stronger foothold in the Indian Ocean Region.
Donald Trump raised the issue earlier this week when he criticized the UK for “great stupidity” in handing over the “strategic” Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
“Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER,” he wrote on his Truth Social. “The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired,” he added.
UK Prime Minister Starmer withdraws Chagos Islands bill
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 23, 2026
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pulled legislation that would have transferred the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The move comes after criticism from Donald Trump and warnings that the bill could violate a 1966 UK–US… pic.twitter.com/2UNhH48uVi
Reacting to the unprecedented criticism from Trump, Britain hit back, saying its deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius “secures” the future of a key US-UK military base on the Indian Ocean archipelago.
“This deal secures the operations of the joint US-UK base on Diego Garcia for generations, with robust provisions for keeping its unique capabilities intact and our adversaries out,” a government spokesperson stated.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has withdrawn his bill on the Chagos Islands amid the backlash. The legislation was planned to be debated on January 26, 2026, but has been postponed amid concerns that it could violate the treaty with the US that upholds the UK’s sovereignty over the archipelago, the report stated. --->READ MORE HEREFollow link below to a relevant story:
+++++Trump has power to block Starmer’s Chagos deal, No 10 admits+++++
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