UK to hand over sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius after decades-long dispute

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00:00Now, the UK has agreed to transfer the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

00:06Among the islands in the Indian Ocean is Diego Garcia,

00:09which hosts a joint British and US military base.

00:12Our correspondent Matthew Thompson joins me now.

00:15Matthew, this is all about a deal to protect the continued operation

00:19of the US and UK military base on Diego Garcia, it seems.

00:23What does it mean for those islanders who are fighting to get back?

00:27Yes, for around 1,000 islanders who were initially kicked off the islands

00:31way back as long ago as 1968, and for them it will mean potentially

00:36at the end to over half a century of legal disputes.

00:40I think the important thing to say is that in handing over

00:43its sovereignty back to Mauritius, basically,

00:46one of the key things that has been agreed by the British government

00:49is that the continued operation of that US-UK military base

00:53on Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands, will continue

00:57and that base will be allowed to remain.

01:00In a statement, the Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that this government

01:03inherited a situation where the long-term secure operation

01:08of the Diego Garcia military base was under threat,

01:11with contested sovereignty and ongoing legal challenges.

01:15Today's agreement, he said, secures this vital military base for the future.

01:19It will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security,

01:22shut down any possibility of the Indian Ocean being used

01:25as a dangerous illegal migration route to the UK,

01:28as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius,

01:31a close Commonwealth partner.

01:33But perhaps worth a very brief history lesson, if I may.

01:37I mean, this dispute, as I said, dates back to 1968

01:40when Mauritius gained its independence from Britain,

01:42and they have long argued that as part of that secession

01:45they were effectively forced to give up the Chagos Islands,

01:48and as I say, in the process of doing so, around 1,000 islanders

01:52were effectively evicted by Britain from the archipelago,

01:56and they'd also, around the same time, the British government

01:59agreed a secret deal with the United States to lease

02:02Diego Garcia for this military base.

02:06And the islanders have fought a long-running legal battle.

02:09As recently as 2016, they were in the Supreme Court

02:12and they lost that legal battle against the UK government.

02:15And what's really interesting, though, here,

02:17is the sort of long-running diplomatic context.

02:19So at the very beginning of this dispute,

02:21Mauritius was pretty much on its own,

02:23but gradually they've garnered more and more international support,

02:26the African nations increasingly speaking with one voice

02:29and criticising British sovereignty.

02:31It's been described, as I say, by many people

02:33as Britain's last colony in Africa, and also the United Nations,

02:37and also, more recently, the International Court of Justice

02:40eventually sided with Mauritius' claims for sovereignty around the island.

02:44So that sort of international diplomatic pressure

02:47has been building for some time.

02:49And Joe Biden, the US president, has released a statement today

02:52applauding what he termed a historic agreement.

02:56But then it's also not without its critics.

02:58So a number of conservative voices,

03:00not least three of the current candidates for conservative leader,

03:04have tweeted their opposition to this agreement,

03:08and also the former defence secretary, no longer an MP, of course,

03:11but Grant Shapps, was particularly strident in his criticisms.

03:15He said,

03:16This is absolutely appalling.

03:18Surrendering sovereignty here creates read-across to other British bases.

03:22It's a weak and deeply regrettable act from this government.

03:25Although I think it should be pointed out, just as a final thought,

03:28that these negotiations have been ongoing since, well, at least 2022.

03:32So it's not as if this is just something that,

03:35since it came to power in the summer,

03:37the Labour government has decided to do.

03:39This has been a long-running negotiation,

03:41which was also taking place under previous conservative administrations as well.

03:45Matthew, thanks very much.

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