‘The UK Must Push Ahead with Chagos Islands Deal Before Trump Has the Chance to Overturn It’

An agreement in which the United Kingdom will step away from one of its last colonial holdings is unfinished business, and the prospect of the Donald Trump administration overturning it suggests that the UK shouldn’t wait to tie up the loose ends. 

The agreement concerns the Chagos islands, where the UK allowed the US to open a military base a half century ago on the island of Diego Garcia. In exchange for a secret $14 million payment from the US, the British Government also acceded to US officials’ wishes to evict the entire indigenous Chagossian people from their homes on the islands. Chagossians have lived in exile in distressing conditions ever since.

The new agreement turned the islands over to the government of the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius, whose sovereignty over the islands was recognised by the International Court of Justice in 2019. 

For its part, Mauritius, a former UK colony, agreed to allow Britain to exercise sovereignty rights over Diego Garcia for at least 99 years to allow the continued operation of the US military base on the island. In exchange, the United Kingdom will make annual rent payments and provide other support to Mauritius. 

The two governments further announced that Britain would provide a compensation fund for exiled Chagossians and that the islanders would be allowed to return to all but one of their islands. To the Chagossians’ dismay, the agreement continues to bar them from living on Diego Garcia.

Right-wing politicians in the UK and the United States pounced on the Chagos deal as an opportunity to bash the new Labour Government and the Biden/Harris administration by suggesting the deal would benefit China because the Chinese government might establish a military or spy presence on the other Chagos islands or Mauritius might somehow “give” Diego Garcia to the Chinese. 

There is no basis in fact for this speculation, but it shows that the UK should urgently finalise things now.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, US President Joe Biden, and Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam should reject the disinformation campaign of Trump’s allies and quickly complete the Chagos treaty, which represents a rare–if partial–victory for international law, the decolonisation movement, and the “rules-based order” that Anglo-American officials frequently trumpet.

In finalising the treaty, the three governments have an opportunity to correct the glaring problem in the initially announced deal: Barring Chagossians from resettling on Diego Garcia, where most trace their ancestry, perpetuates their exile and decades of injustice. Doing so also violates instructions from the International Court of Justice and UN General Assembly to uphold Chagossians’ human rights and assist their resettlement. 

While US and UK officials have long cited “security” concerns to justify the Diego Garcia ban, Chagossians could live on the other half of the island, miles from the base, just as civilian populations live near US bases worldwide (even at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba). Civilian employees who are neither US or UK citizens already live and work on the Diego Garcia base.  

Before Trump takes office, Starmer, Biden, and Ramgoolam have an opportunity not just to push back against the rise of anti-democratic authoritarianism but also to offer a powerful and much-needed example of another kind of politics prioritising human rights and democracy, international law and the end of colonial rule. 

They should finalise an improved Chagos treaty and tell Trump and his allies that The Diego Garcia deal is done.