We must call off the Chagos Islands deal
4 min read
The sovereignty of the Chagos Islands over the last few months has excited emotions on all sides of the Commons, for good reason. The islands have been part of Britain since 1810/14 and the islands have been of vital strategic importance ever since.
It’s not hard to see why as they sit just below the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf and close to the trade routes to India and the Far East.
In 1965, just prior to Mauritian independence, the British Indian Ocean Territory was created and in 1966 the United States government was given access to Diego Garcia. Mauritius achieved independence in 1968.
The Mauritian government contested British sovereignty very recently on the basis that the United Kingdom should not have detached British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) from Mauritius prior to independence. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) heard the case and gave a non-binding advisory opinion, in essence agreeing with the case from Mauritius.
Following the ICJ’s judgement, although I and many others didn’t believe they had to, the Conservative foreign secretary at the time started negotiations with the Mauritian government.
Let us not sign in haste, only to repent at leisure in the volatile years ahead
Labour’s decision to pursue this negotiation, and agree a deal to hand sovereignty back to Mauritius, is now under attack.
The case for Mauritius to take control of the Chagos Islands is disputed, particularly by the Chagossians, many of whom live and work in the UK. They make the case that the islands were administered for convenience over the years, from both the Seychelles and Mauritius, and that they are over 1,300 miles away from Mauritius.
The Chagossians also hold British Overseas Territories passports and are not citizens of Mauritius but simply want to be given the opportunity to return home to their islands.
Sadly, throughout these negotiations, both governments have failed to properly consult the Chagossians on what they want, until it was too late and after the agreement was struck.
There are significant problems with the deal as well, crucially the risk to the security of the Diego Garcia base. There would be nothing to stop a future Mauritian government from later on re-litigating the deal through the ICJ, creating significant issues for the US and the UK. Also, the 99-year lease agreed by the UK government with Mauritius is going to cost the British taxpayer huge sums of money.
Despite reassurances, the lease does not contain all of the surrounding Chagos islands, which will now be vulnerable without the protection of British sovereignty. As China eyes the Indian Ocean, it is vital the UK and US are able to block Chinese pressure to install listening posts. No deal like this is ever a perpetual guarantee.
The UK government refuses to publish the agreement so that we can scrutinise it in Parliament. Their utter refusal to tell the British taxpayers what they will have to shell out to secure the right to occupy the Diego Garcia base leaves us all fearing the worst.
What’s more, the Mauritanian government that the UK government negotiated the deal with has now been kicked out of power, which leaves this poor agreement in limbo.
This is a good opportunity to revisit the whole issue with a view to obtaining much stronger protections for the strategically vital base at Diego Garcia – by dint of not ceding sovereignty.
After all, it is becoming clearer by the day that US security forces in the Pentagon and beyond are deeply uneasy about this weak deal. The arrival of Donald Trump must now mean a suspension of the agreement, allowing time to understand the views of the new President-elect and his advisers, particularly with war raging in the Middle East and Ukraine.
In a dangerous world with democracy, human rights and the rule of law being challenged everywhere by totalitarian states is not the time to gamble with our security.
Let us not sign in haste, only to repent at leisure in the volatile years ahead.
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