Hello John and Doves,
The UK has a deal going to
hand over the Chagos Islands to the island country of
Mauritius. Disputes over ownership are decades
long. Mauritius is some 1,250 miles from the Chagos
Islands (a collection of some 60 islands) - how is this not
just trading the 'ownership of the
colonization'?
One of those islands, Diego
Garcia, has the joint UK/US naval and bomber base - a very
strategic military base for operations in the Middle East,
Africa and Asia.
President Trump now has some
deal going on with NATO and Greenland - he's dropped the
threat of tariffs and it looks like NATO and the EU consider
Greenland very important for the security of Europe...and
want the US to step up for that defense. Which
President Trump is very happy to do.
Will something similar
happen with the Chagos Islands and Diego Garcia?
The UK Deal With Mauritius:
The UK and Mauritius have
been working on a deal for quite some time. It will
cost the UK about $4.6 billion.
The Independent is reporting
this will cost the UK "up to 30 billion pounds" - that's
about $40.5 billion. PM Starmer is "accused of 'lying
to the public'.
The Chagos Islands are the
UK's last African colony. France ceded the islands to
the British in 1814 as "part of the treaty of Paris after
the defeat of Napoleon".
Diego Garcia is to be leased
back to the UK for 99 years.. And the Mauritans cannot
resettle the island, even though they will control it.
The total lease time is about 140 years.
The deal is: The UK
will pay Mauritius about $222 million every year for the
first 3 years, then from years 4 - 13 they will pay about
$160 million. "After that, payments will be linked to
inflation." The US will pay for the military base's
'running costs'. The deal also includes approx $54
million trust fund to support the Chagossians.
PM Starmer said that
President Trump approved the deal last year after
negotiations were complete.
The deal was agreed to by
the UK and Mauritius in May 2025 - but it has not
yet been ratified by the UK Parliament...so it's still
British territory.
At one time Mauritius was a
British colony. In 1965 the islands (which are some
1,250 miles away from Mauritius) were separated from
Mauritius - the islands were purchased by Britain for about
$3 million, which Mauritius said was part of the deal to
gain independence from Britain. They said t hey were
'pressured' to sell the islands. Also, part of the
deal was that "the islands would return to Mauritius once
they were no longer needed for British defence."
Mauritius has claimed
sovereignty over the islands and in 2019 the International
Court of Justice ruled the decolonisation of Mauritius was
not lawful and the UK was "under an obligation to bring an
end it is administration of the archipelago as rapidly as
possible." A treaty between the UK and Mauritius was
signed by PM Keir Starmer on May 22, 2025. Starmer
said that legal action was not realistic. "The UK
could just ignore such orders but without an agreement it
would not have legal grounds to prevent China or other
nations from establishing bases on the other islands or
conducting joint exercises near Diego Garcia, it was
claimed."
Keir
Starmer accuses Donald Trump of Chagos Islands deal
reversal
What's The
Rub?:
It seems that the US
initially supported the 'deal' but then President Trump
turned around and called it "an act of great stupidity"
and "total weakness", citing national security
reasons. Some believe this has to do with Trump's
interest in Greenland for "national security reasons".
The International Court of
Justice is the U.N.'s judicial organ, located in The
Hague. The International Court has often been
criticized - biased rulings, biased judges, illegal
procedures and its lack of authority.
I doubt China or Russia
will care what the International Court of Justice has to
say about anything. In fact, the U.S. withdrew their
"declaration consenting to jurisdiction". So the
U.S. doesn't care what the ICJ has to say. And
initially, the UK government didn't care either!!
Only PM Starmer's government took the ICJ's 'advise' on
the matter as legally binding.
When the ICJ in 2019,
"issued an advisory opinion on the arrangement, finding
that the UK had an "obligation" to bring its
administration of the islands to an end "as rapidly as
possible". This was NOT a legally binding judgment,
and the Conservative administration in power at
the time disagreed with it. Less than a
year after his election victory, Sir Keir (Starmer)
announced that Labour was taking a different approach and
striking a deal with Mauritius. This is "absolutely
vital" for the "safety and security of the British
people," he said. The government argues that the
deal will guarantee the Diego Garcia base for the long
term...and secure the base and islands against China or
other states that may want to set up a presence there."
Yet, Starmer seems to
believe that the ICJ can keep China from 'establishing
bases in the Chagos Islands or conducting joint exercises
near Diego Garcia'. Mautirius and China have strong
bilateral relations - China is very much interested in
economic development and 'financial services' with
Mautirius. Surely, PM Starmer knows of the tight
connections between Mautirius and China...??
Mauritius
and China chart new avenues for financial and economic
cooperation
PM Starmer opened a can of
worms....will Argentina sue in the ICJ, like Mautitius,
for the Falkland Islands?
What about the Cayman
Islands? Turks and Caicos Islands?
Bermuda? British Virgin Islands? Are those up
for grabs? Seems PM Starmer and his government are
perfectly happy selling out the British people.
Is President Trump right
about this being a 'stupid' decision? The
Chagossians are upset that they had no say in the
agreement and they want it 'renegotiated' to include their
rights to the islands. And other parties in the UK
are contesting the British government's actions in signing
the agreement in the first place.
And, "MPs will be
digesting Trump's latest intervention when they debate a
bill later in Parliament which is required for the Chagos
deal to be ratified and brought into force." The
Commons and the House of Lords are working on the wording
of the agreement. And one amendment wants the total
cost of the deal made public.
Diego Garcia is an
important military base....China moving on to adjoining
islands would not be a good thing. We used Diego
Garcia for actions in the Middle East - this could
compromise future operations and military operations to
help Israel.
At the Davos meeting
January 21, 2026 President Trump met with NATO Secretary
General Mark Rutte resulting in "President Donald Trump
said on Thursday he had secured total and permanent U.S.
access to Greenland in a deal with NATO, whose head said
allies would have to step up their commitment to Arctic
security to ward off threats from Russia and China.
News of a framework deal came as Trump backed off tariff
threats and ruled out taking Greenland by force"...the
details of the agreement have not been reached yet.
Does President Trump
has something similar in mind for the Chagos
Islands? Diego Garcia? The military base on
Diego Garcia was built to thwart Soviet military expansion
in the area....but what about Chinese expansion
today? Does NATO consider China a threat too?
Will Russia expand in the area? NATO knows Russia
and China like seeing the West divided...will NATO step in
for 'security' concerns like they did with Greenland?
Maranatha!
Chance