After Trump's approval, UK-Mauritius Chagos Islands deal expected to be sealed this week

After US President Donald Trump’s apparent approval, the United Kingdom and Mauritius are expected to sign the Chagos Islands deal this week.

Last week, Trump signalled his approval to the deal in a joint press interaction with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the White House. He said that the deal “doesn’t look bad”. The deal remains controversial in the UK where the Conservative Party has condemned it strategic blunder and financial folly.

In October 2024, the UK and Mauritius reached an understanding that the UK would transfer the sovereignty of Chagos Islands, a cluster of around 60 islands in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius in exchange for a 99-year lease for the UK-US military base at Diego Garcia, the largest island in the archipelago.

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The Starmer government has stressed that the deal is a must to maintain control of the Diego Garcia base in the wake of an adverse ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and in the fear of possible more such rulings by other international tribunals.

Mauritius suggests the deal is done

After Trump’s approval, the British government is set to ratify the Chagos Islands deal and send it to Mauritius for finalisation this week, according to The Daily Telegraph.

A senior source familiar with the deal told The Telegraph that following Trump’s approval, the British government could send the deal to Mauritius for finalisation as early as Tuesday.

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However, even though Trump last week signalled support for the deal, it is not yet known if he has formally approved the deal. His formal approval is required for the deal to go forward as the UK operates the Diego Garcia base at Chagos Islands jointly with the United States. The previous Joe Biden administration had approved the deal in principle, but the baton was passed to Trump for final formal approval once the new Mauritius government reopened negotiations.

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The source told The Telegraph that “Tuesday is D-day” and that Mauritius was “just awaiting confirmation” from the UK before taking the final agreement to its cabinet for the approval.

Following Trump’s apparent approval of the deal last week, Mauritius PM Navin Ramgoolam had said, “It seems positive. We will wait and see what the final proposals are.”

With Starmer by his side, Trump had said that the terms of the deal were “strong” and the deal appeared to be good.

“They’re talking about a very long-term, powerful lease, a very strong lease, about 140 years. Actually, it’s a long time and I think we’ll be inclined to go along with your country. Yeah, I think it’s a little bit early. We have to be given the details, but it doesn’t sound bad,” said Trump.

Criticism continues in UK

The Conservative Party in the Opposition has continued to criticise the deal. While party leader Kemi Badenoch had previously counted on Trump rejecting the deal, she has said that the deal remains a “surrender” irrespective of Trump’s apparent go-ahead.

“It is not in our national interest to give away the Chagos Islands and pay for the privilege of doing so. That is taxpayers’ money,” Badenoch told BBC.

Badenoch further slammed the Starmer government over indication that the money earmarked for increased defence spending could be diverted to the Chagos Islands deal’s transactions.

“That is money which the Prime Minister seems to have confirmed is coming out of the defence increase that he has just announced. That’s terrible. He did not deny it when he was asked so we will not stop our opposition to the surrender of the Chagos Islands. We will continue,” said Badenoch.

ALSO READ: Will UK have to pay more to Mauritius for Chagos deal?

As the Chagos Islands are deemed a critical foothold to check Chinese designs in the Indo-Pacific region, the surrender of the islands is being slammed as a strategic blunder. Commentators have raised the possibility that Chinese could use the islands in the vicinity of the Diego Garcia island to compromise the safety of the military base. Moreover, the financial terms of the deal have been criticised.

Even though the specifics of the deal have not been disclosed, reports in the media have said that the UK was originally supposed to pay £90 million a year for Diego Garcia’s lease, which would come to be around £9 billion in total. However, reports have said that, under reopened negotiations, the new Mauritian government has sought up to £800 million a year instead of £90 million. Moreover, it has reportedly sought to adjust lease payments annually for inflation. It has also reportedly sought reparations for historic occupation.

The hiked lease payments, annual adjustments for inflation, and reparations would raise the cost of the deal by hundreds of millions if not billions.

Dame Priti Patel, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, has previously called the deal “economically illiterate”.

“At a time when public spending is under serious pressure, they are also signing up to spend billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money leasing back a site that is currently under our sovereignty. And to add insult to injury, they are doing all this in secret, with Labour ministers keep refusing to explain the details to Parliament and the British public. They must urgently come clean on what exactly this surrender is going to cost us,” said Patel.