'It doesn't sound bad': Trump signals he'll approve UK's Chagos Islands deal with Mauritius

In a huge reprieve to embattled British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, US President Donald Trump has signalled he will approve the Chagos Islands deal.

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

For weeks, the deal has been under criticism in the UK over its financial terms and strategic implications. The Trump administration was also said to be skeptical of the deal. The US approval is a must for the deal as the Diego Garcia base is jointly operated. While the previous Joe Biden administration approved teh deal, there were signs that the Trump administration could be critical of the deal.

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Just a day ahead of Starmer’s meeting with Trump, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy had said that if Trump would not approve the deal, it would be off the table .

The deal doesn’t sound bad, says Trump

At a press interaction with Starmer at the White House, Trump said the Chagos Islands deal does not sound bad and he believes the deal would work out.

Trump said that while he would hold discussions over the deal, the terms are “strong”.

“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.

As per the deals reported in the media, the 99-year lease can be expanded to 40 for years.

Why is Chagos Islands deal controversial?

While the idea of ceding sovereignty had been controversial from the beginning, the strategic location of the islands and the terms being negotiated again have made it all the more controversial.

The Chagos Islands are located strategically in the Indian Ocean and offer a foothold in the region to check Chinese designs in the Indo-Pacific. The handover of such a foothold has been dubbed as a strategic folly. Moreover, experts have said that if the surrounding islands are give up in the deal and only Diego Garcia is kept, then those surrounding islands could be used by adversaries like China to threaten the base and aircraft and vessels operating there.

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The financial terms of the deal are also under criticism. While the specific terms have not been revealed, reports have said that the UK is supposed to pay £90 million a year for Diego Garcia’s lease, which would come to be around £9 billion in total. But the new government in Mauritius, which came to power a few weeks after the agreement, has reopened negotiations and reportedly sought more money and better terms. There have been reports that the it has demanded up to £800 million a year instead of £90 million. Moreover, it has sought to adjust lease payments annually for inflation. It has also reportedly sought reparations for historic occupation.

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

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

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

Patel said, “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.”