UK reviews Chagos Islands handover deal after Trump criticism
The UK is reviewing its agreement to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after renewed opposition from US President Donald Trump. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said the deal was being looked at again following Trump's description of it as "terrible" at the UN General Assembly. The arrangement would allow the UK and US to continue using the military base on Diego Garcia under a lease-back deal.
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Streeting said the government had to revisit the plan because the United States does not support it. He said Trump's position on the draft agreement was not changing, and that more work was needed with American officials to try to reach a version both sides could support. The original deal would have seen the UK cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius while paying an average of £101 million, or $136 million, a year to lease back the base.
The review comes after the same agreement was paused indefinitely in April when Trump withdrew his support. That pause had already cast doubt on the future of a plan that was intended to settle the long-running status of the archipelago while preserving access to Diego Garcia. The island is regarded as strategically important because of its location in the Indian Ocean.
The issue matters because Diego Garcia is a major military asset and any change to sovereignty arrangements affects both UK foreign policy and US strategic interests. The proposed lease-back model was designed to balance Mauritius's claim to sovereignty with continued UK-US military use of the base. Trump's latest criticism has again exposed the dependence of the deal on Washington's approval.
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The Chagos Islands have been at the centre of a wider diplomatic dispute over control of the territory and the future of the base. Under the current proposal, the UK would hand over sovereignty but retain access to the facility through a joint presence with the United States. That makes the agreement unusually sensitive, linking a territorial settlement to defence planning and alliance management.
What happens next will depend on further talks between London and Washington, and on whether the draft can be adjusted to satisfy US concerns. It is not clear how long the review will take or whether the current terms can be salvaged. For now, the deal remains under reconsideration, with the future of the Chagos Islands arrangement still unresolved.
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