Mauritius and the United Kingdom released a joint statement on 3 October 2024 announcing the UK’s agreement to transfer the Chagos archipelago. This agreement included the return of the island of Diego Garcia to Mauritius. This recognizes Mauritius’s sovereignty over the entire archipelago and permits the UK to exercise such sovereignty on behalf of Mauritius in Diego Garcia for the next 99 years. In continuation, we try to examine the UK’s Handover of Chagos Islands to Mauritius by explaining its history and features.
History of Chagos Islands
The native population of Diego Garcia, known as Chagossians, descended from enslaved Africans brought by French colonists in the late 18th century. The French were the first European powers to claim Diego Garcia, using the island primarily for coconut plantations. They brought enslaved people to the island who worked in agriculture and established a small, thriving community. After the abolition of slavery, these populations mixed with other ethnic groups. It formed a Creole-speaking community with a unique cultural identity. However, in 1814, Britain took control of Mauritius and its dependencies under the Treaty of Paris — including Diego Garcia. For most of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the island and its Creole culture remained relatively isolated. It served as an obscure outpost of the British Empire’s Indian Ocean territories. As a dependency of Mauritius, the French colony administered the Chagos archipelago from 1715 to 1814.
Between 1814 and 1965, it became a British colony. In 1965, Britain promised to withdraw from Mauritius but not Chagos. Hence, Mauritius became independent in 1968 without Chagos, which became a British Indian Ocean Territory. In 1966, the UK leased Diego Garcia to the US for 50 years for a US$14 million discount on its purchase of nuclear-armed submarine-launched Polaris ballistic missile systems. The UK and the US wanted to keep the archipelago free from any political complications that could arise from the presence of indigenous populations. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the UK exiled inhabitants of the Chagos to Mauritius and Seychelles. Then, the British Indian Ocean Territory banned Chagossians from returning to the islands. The UK reserved the ban in 2000. It allowed Chagossians to return to the outer islands. But this was short-lived. The 2004 Immigration Ordinance reintroduced the restriction. UK’s Handover of Chagos Islands to Mauritius could be the end of years of colonialism.
The UK retains Diego Garcia for military, strategic, economic, and geopolitical reasons
The UK’s Handover of Chagos Islands to Mauritius is significant strategically. In 1971, the US established a naval and air support base in Diego Garcia. It is jointly operated with the UK. Some 4,000 US and British military and contract civilian personnel have been reported to be stationed on the island since the military base was opened. In 2016, the UK extended the lease of the island to the US until 2036.
Diego Garcia houses a military base jointly operated by the UK and the US. The base, which includes an airstrip, has enabled both countries to project military power in global hotspots, especially in East Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian Ocean. It supported air operations such as Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom in the Middle East. Instead of frequently deploying expensive aircraft carriers, the UK and US can conduct military operations from this base in the region. They can respond more rapidly.
Labour gives sovereignty to Mauritius and takes its security
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, said the UK government had secured the future of the military base. The US president, Joe Biden, welcomed the agreement as a “clear demonstration that … countries can overcome longstanding historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes.” The United Kingdom has announced it is giving up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a deal that will secure the future of a key US military base.
Despite Biden’s endorsement and the fact that negotiations were begun under the Conservative government, all four Conservative leadership candidates—including James Cleverly, who, as foreign secretary, announced the discussions—condemned the deal as harmful to the UK’s interests.
International law’s position toward UK’s Handover of Chagos Islands to Mauritius
In June 2017, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 71/292. It asked the International Court of Justice to advise on the legality of separating Chagos from Mauritius. The African Union and many of its member states supported the process. In February 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a ruling that Britain’s presence in the Chagos Islands is “Occupation”. Therefore, UK’s Handover of Chagos Islands to Mauritius seems necessary.
The court concluded that the detachment of the Chagos Islands from Mauritius in 1965 as part of the British Indian Ocean Territory was unlawful. It also mentioned that the process of decolonization was incomplete. While the court’s ruling was non-binding, it carried significant moral and political weight. Following the ICJ’s decision, the UN General Assembly then passed a resolution calling for the UK to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. However, the government refused to comply until this past October. They cite the continued strategic importance of Diego Garcia for defense purposes. The US had also expressed opposition to any changes in the status of Diego Garcia until recently when President Joe Biden reportedly pushed for a transfer of sovereignty. Finally, the UK handed over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Human Rights Watch (HRW), which said in a report last year that the UK should pay full and unconditional reparations to generations affected by the forcible displacement of islanders, lamented the deal.
Islands are becoming more critical for significant powers, especially in the Indo-Pacific.
Great powers have a strategic value that enhances their bargaining power with the major powers. However, they also expose island nations to great power competition, which could go against their national interests. The UK’s handover of Chagos archipelago and retention of Diego Garcia is obviously a strategic move. However, it raises questions about the genuine intentions of significant powers’ relations with small island nations.
On the strategic question, Mauritius guaranteed the utility of the joint US–UK military base on Diego Garcia in a 99-year lease. As the UK negotiator Jonathan Powell explained, this deal was reached in close consultation with US officials and put the base on legally safe ground for the first time in decades. There are understandable concerns that, as a result of the decision, China may develop commercial ports in the region and seek to compete with India for economic and strategic relationships. Then, the UK’s Handover of Chagos Islands to Mauritius should be understood in a bigger game. However, this is a long-term matter of concern to monitor, regardless of the UK’s decision on Chagos. Chinese naval influence in the Indian Ocean is currently limited. This is while China is building artificial islands in the South China Sea or the South Pacific. China is pursuing policing assistance deals like that secured with the Solomon Islands.
