 "British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer shakes hands with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on February 27, 2025 in Washington, DC, US (Photo: Reuters)")
US President Donald Trump has approved the Chagos Islands deal between the United Kingdom and Mauritius, according to the British Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Last year, the UK and Mauritius reached an understanding that the UK would transfer the sovereignty of Chagos Islands, an archipelago 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 of those islands.
Trump’s approval was required for that deal as the UK and United States jointly operate the Diego Garcia base.
A spokesperson for the PMO told The Independent that Trump has approved the deal and the modalities of the handover are now being finalised by the UK and Mauritius.
“We are now working with the Mauritian government to finalise the deal and sign the treaty,” said the spokesperson.
Separately, a source told the newspaper that “it’s now between us and the Mauritian government to finalise the deal following the discussions with us”.
“We have had the discussions with the US and we are now finalising with the Mauritians,” the source added.
The Chagos Islands deal, which British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer reached with the Mauritian government in October 2024, has been controversial in the UK. It has been criticised for ceding sovereign British territory and compromising British and Western security interests in the Indo-Pacific region by ceding sovereignty over the Diego Garcia base. There has also been controversy about the terms of the deal, with reports suggesting that Mauritius has sought more money to seal the deal.
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While the previous Joe Biden administration of the United States had cleared the deal, it was initially thought that Trump could block the deal. However, in February, Trump signalled he would approve the deal . He said at the time that the deal appeared to be “strong” and did not sound bad.
“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 some reports, the 99-year lease is extendable to 40 more years.
The Conservative Party in the Opposition has consistently criticised the deal. The ministers of the previous Rishi Sunak government have said that they had blocked the deal during their term. 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.”