The United Kingdom on Thursday (October 3) said it would cede sovereignty of the strategically important Chagos Islands to Mauritius, calling it a “historic political agreement”. The UK has long controlled Chagos and the Diego Garcia military base located there, jointly operating it with the United States. British Foreign Minister David Lammy said the deal settled the contested sovereignty of Britain’s last overseas territory in Africa, while securing the long-term future of Diego Garcia. The joint statement from the UK and Mauritius further said the two countries “enjoyed the full support and assistance of our close partners, the United States of America and the Republic of India.” What is the Chagos archipelago? The Chagos archipelago, comprising 58 islands, lies roughly 500 km to the south of the Maldives archipelago in the Indian Ocean. These islands were uninhabited until the late 18th century, when the French brought in slave labour from Africa and India to work in newly-established coconut plantations. In 1814, France ceded the islands to the British. In 1965, the UK constituted the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), of which the Chagos Islands were a central part. A few other BIOT islands were later ceded to the Seychelles in 1976 after it gained independence from Britain. Chagos was attached to Mauritius, another British colony in the Indian Ocean, for administrative purposes. But when Mauritius gained independence in 1968, Chagos remained with Britain. The UK government gave the newly-independent country a grant of 3 million pounds over the “detachment” of the Chagos archipelago. And what is Diego Garcia? Behind Britain retaining sovereignty over the Chagos Islands was its strategic location. In 1966, Britain signed an agreement with the US which made the BIOT available for the two countries’ defence needs. Land was acquired in 1967, and four years later, the plantation on Diego Garcia — the largest in the archipelago — was shut down. The BIOT administration then enacted an Immigration Ordinance, which made it unlawful for a person to enter or remain in Diego Garcia without a permit, and enabled the removal of those who remained on the island. Around 2,000 civilians were subsequently kicked out — an issue that has been central to the dispute between the UK and Mauritius. Diego Garcia became a fully operational military base in 1986. According to an article in the Foreign Policy magazine, “Thanks to its vital location, the island houses a military base that served as a critical node for American air operations during the Gulf War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Post-9/11, it has also been allegedly used as a detention centre by the [US intelligence agency] CIA.” A statement from US President Joe Biden on Thursday said, “Diego Garcia is the site of a joint U.S.-UK military facility that plays a vital role in national, regional, and global security. It enables the United States to support operations that demonstrate our shared commitment to regional stability, provide rapid response to crises, and counter some of the most challenging security threats we face.” Given the ongoing tensions in West Asia, maintaining a presence in the Indian Ocean remains critical for US interests. Diego Garcia also gives the Americans an outpost to monitor the Malacca Strait, a chokepoint for world trade that is especially vital to China. Why did Mauritius seek sovereign rights over Chagos? Mauritius has long claimed that the UK illegally occupies Chagos, and has raised the matter many times in international fora. In 2017, the UN General Assembly voted to ask the International Court of Justice to examine the legal status of the Chagos archipelago. Two years later, the UNGA adopted a resolution welcoming an ICJ advisory opinion, demanding that the United Kingdom “unconditionally withdraw its colonial administration from the area within six months”. Then ICJ President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf had said the detachment of the Chagos archipelago in 1965 from Mauritius was not based on a “free and genuine expression of the people concerned”. Chagossians today live in the UK, Mauritius and Seychelles. What is the significance of the UK-Mauritius treaty? The agreement between the UK and Mauritius strikes a balance. The UK has ceded claims over the islands, and Mauritius is now “free to implement a programme of resettlement on the islands of the Chagos Archipelago, other than Diego Garcia”. The UK has also promised to create a new trust fund “for the benefit of Chagossians”. However, the agreement allows the Diego Garcia base to remain operational for an “initial period” of 99 years. The UK will continue to exercise sovereign rights over the island. The resolution of the dispute has broader implications. As the Foreign Policy article noted: “A successful resolution to the Diego Garcia spat would affirm Western commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. If left unresolved, however, the issue could drive countries such as Mauritius to seek redress with alternative partners like China.” As a nation formerly colonised by Britain, India has maintained steadfast support to Mauritius’ claims over the Chagos Islands. It voted in favour of the island country at the UNGA in 2019. In recent years, India has attempted to deepen its ties with Mauritius amidst China’s ever increasing assertiveness in the Indian Ocean. Earlier this year, an India-built airstrip and a jetty was inaugurated at Agaléga, a two-island dependency of Mauritius in the Western Indian Ocean.
