The United Kingdom Government has signed a historical agreement to transfer the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauricio.
At the same time, he assured a long -term lease contract that allows the United States to continue operating a key military base in Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Indian Ocean archipelago.
According to the agreement, the United Kingdom will pay Mauricio an average of £ 101 million ($ 136 million) annually to lease the base for at least 99 years.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, described the “crucial” base to national security.
“By accepting this agreement now in our terms, we are ensuring strong protections, even due to evil influence, which will allow the base to operate until the next century, helping us safely for the coming generations,” he said at a military headquarters in Northwood, near London.
The base has supported US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pedodes nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers and large aircraft used in intelligence collection.
The agreement has been abruptly criticized by opposition politicians.
“We should not pay to deliver the British territory to Mauricio,” said Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative Party.
The agreement has also attracted the protests of the Chagossians, islanders who were eliminated by force in the sixties and seventies to give way to the base.
Two activists, Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe, presented a last minute legal challenge that temporarily blocked the firm.
The mandate was later taken by another judge, allowing the agreement to continue.
Pompe said the result was devastating. “A very sad day,” he said. “The rights we are asking for for now, we have been fighting for 60 years. Mauricio will not give us that.”
The agreement includes a trustee for the Chagossian community and allows Mauricio to begin a resettlement program, but not in Diego GarcÃa.
There is no legal obligation for displaced residents to return.
The United Kingdom has controlled the Chagos Islands since 1814. They divided them from Mauricio in 1965, three years before Mauricio won independence.
In 2019, the International Court of Justice issued a non -binding opinion that the separation of the islands by Great Britain was illegal.
Starmer said the United Kingdom had no legal way to stop the transfer.
“We had to act now because the base was under threat,” he said.
He added that a legal challenge of Mauricio was imminent and that the United Kingdom did not have “realistic successful perspective” in court.
The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense said the agreement includes several security safeguards.
These include an exclusion zone of 24 miles (39 km) around Diego GarcÃa, a veto of the United Kingdom on the development in the other islands and a prohibition of foreign military forces in other parts of the archipelago.
Conversations on the agreement began in 2022 under the previous conservative government. The negotiations resumed after the work came to power in July 2024.
In October, a draft agreement was reached, but delays continued due to political changes in Mauricio and disagreements on financial terms.
The United Kingdom also stopped to consult the United States after its own change of government. The Biden administration reviewed the agreement, and the new leadership of the United States signed earlier this year.
The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, praised the final result.
He said that “ensures the long -term, stable and effective operation of the base of Diego GarcÃa, a critical asset for regional and global security.”
(BBC)
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