UK’s island deal to avoid ‘missile crisis’
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s deal to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is necessary to avoid setting off ‘a serious confrontation’ in the Indian Ocean, a Foreign Office minister says.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s deal to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is necessary to avoid setting off “a serious confrontation” in the Indian Ocean, a Foreign Office minister has said.
Stephen Doughty, the Minister for the British Overseas Territories, has written in The Times that countries such as China or Russia could exploit an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice to build a spy hub near the US military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the archipelago’s islands.
He suggests brinkmanship in the Indian Ocean could prompt a dangerous showdown similar to the Cuban missile crisis and says the deal would “strengthen our position in the region”, adding: “If you value UK national security, and that of our allies, you should support this deal.”
The Chagos Islands have a strategically important location in the middle of the Indian Ocean halfway between Australia and Africa, through which a third of world trade passes. After the expulsion of the native Chagossians in the 1960s and 70s, the US built a military base on Diego Garcia.
B-52 nuclear bombers are known to fly from the airstrip and the island’s docks are capable of hosting nuclear-powered submarines. The remote atoll is also thought to be used by US intelligence agencies for eavesdropping on hostile states.
Under the terms of the deal, Britain will pay Mauritius £90m ($177m) a year for 99 years, rising annually with inflation, to maintain control of Diego Garcia. The deal also prevents Mauritius from renting out neighbouring islands considered a serious risk after the ICJ advisory opinion, which ruled that Britain had no sovereignty over the islands.
“If we don’t pay, someone else will,” Mr Doughty writes. “Our adversaries would jump at the chance to establish outposts on the outer islands. With a guise of legality on their side, we would have no basis to remove them and efforts to do so could spark a serious confrontation.”
British diplomats are engaging in intense lobbying to secure the approval of Doanld Trump before an expected visit by Sir Keir to the White House in the coming weeks. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz have both previously argued against granting sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius, which has deepening economic ties with China.
Mr Doughty argues the deal will “solidify” the special relationship. “The British Indian Ocean Territory deal is rooted in a rational and hard-headed determination to protect UK national security,” he writes.
“This deal will protect the base on Diego Garcia and cement UK and US presence in the Indo-Pacific for generations to come.”
In 2019, the ICJ ordered Britain to end “its administration of the Chagos Islands as rapidly as possible”.
The Times
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