UK hands over Chagos Islands to Mauritius

London: The UK on Thursday announced a “historic” agreement that will see Britain hand over sovereignty of the remote Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius while it retains the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.

The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) status of the disputed archipelago, made up of around 60 islands, has been in

contention for many years and negotiations

over its future began under the previous Conservative Party government in 2022.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Kumar

Jugnauth soon after to welcome the political agreement achieved between the UK and

Mauritius on the exercise of sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago after two years of negotiations.

“The Prime Minister reiterated the importance of reaching this deal to protect the continued operation of the UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.

He underscored his steadfast duty to national and global security which underpinned the political agreement reached

today,” Downing Street said in a readout of the phone call.

Under the agreement announced this week, the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia - which the West

says plays a crucial role in the region’s stability

and international security - will remain under UK and US jurisdiction for at least the next 99 years.

“This government inherited a situation where the long-term, secure operation of the Diego

Garcia military base was under threat, with contested sovereignty and ongoing legal challenges,” said UK Foreign Secretary David

Lammy.