 "The photograph shows military aircraft stationed at the joint US-UK base at the Diego Garcia island in the Chagos Islands archipelago. (Photo: AFP)")
Amid pressure on British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over the Chagos Islands deal, a former naval commander has flagged the deal for endangering British and US aircraft operating in the region.
In a historic deal in October 2024 , the UK and Mauritius announced that the UK would transfer the sovereignty over Chagos Islands, a cluster of some 60 islands in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius and secure a 99-year lease for the British-UK military base at Diego Garcia, the largest island in the archipelago. The deal has been slammed by the Conservative Party as being harmful to British and Western security interests.
In the latest instance of criticism, Commander (Retired) Adam Peters of the British Royal Navy has said that surrendering islands around Diego Garcia to Mauritius could allow China to acquire those islands and put the British-US military base under surveillance and possibly shoot down British and US planes operating there.
Even though the two sides have signed the deal, it is yet to be ratified by both the sides and its fate, particularly as the Mauritian government is renegotiating it and the Donald Trump administration in the United States has said to be miffed with the deal, is uncertain. In the UK, the deal has also been criticised for its costs, with a report saying it could actually cost much more than what was initially known.
Ex-Navy commander flags China’s threat to Diego Garcia
Cdr Peters, who commanded the Diego Garcia base during 2001-03, told The Daily Telegraph that, owing to the closeness between China and Mauritius, China could acquire islands around Diego Garcia where it can instal spying outposts or weapon systems that would not just put the Diego Garcia base under surveillance but would also allow the shooting down of British and US aircraft and vessels.
Cdr Peters said that the base was currently “easily defended”, but giving sovereignty to Mauritius would allow China to construct military installations nearby.
“If the outer islands are under Mauritian control, China could quite happily start redeveloping them and installing all sorts of spying equipment that I think would affect the security of Diego Garcia. There is also the possibility that they could start putting weapons on there, which could shoot down aircraft using the air base,” said Peters.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWithout such threats, the base is “very safe” and “easily defended”, said Peters.
“The most important thing there is you’ve got a very, very safe, easily defended base from which the American Air Force can actually influence events. Militarily, if the Mauritians did take the islands, with their affinity for the Chinese, I think you would find that rapidly there would be Chinese influence in those areas. That is a major problem,” said Peters.
Even though a Foreign Office spokesman told The Telegraph that a clause in the deal prohibits “any other foreign security forces, civilian or military – including Chinese – from establishing themselves anywhere in the Chagos archipelago”, Peters said that such a clause would be meaningless if Mauritius decided to grant the islands around the base to China.
“What sort of agreement we had with the Mauritians would make no difference whatsoever. We do not want to give that away to anybody who has any possibility of colluding with potential enemies,” said Peters.
The Foreign Office spokesperson, however, insisted that there exists “a robust mechanism and review process to ensure no activity in the outer islands can impinge upon base operations”.
The Chagos Islands deal in troubled waters
In the UK, the Chagos Islands deal has been criticised for giving away a strategic foothold in the Indo-Pacific region as well as for the high cost.
While it was previously reported that Mauritius at on point demanded £800 a year instead of the £90 million a year that was originally agreed, Mauritius has now indicated that the UK has agreed to adjust annual lease payment for inflation . It would mean that £90 million annual payment would keep rising through the duration of the year, raising the original £9 billion cost of the deal by hundreds of millions.
Dama Priti Patel, the Shadow Foreign Secretary from the Conservative Party, has dubbed the deal “epic failure of diplomacy” in her latest criticism.
“It seems Keir Starmer has learnt absolutely nothing – and is still putting his Leftie shame of our country’s history over our national security, and our longstanding relationship with our closest ally,” said Patel, as per The Telegraph.
Previously, Patel had dubbed 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 at the time.