Mauritius declines receiving US proposal on Chagos Islands

On Monday, Mauritius stated it hadn’t received any proposal from the Trump administration regarding the Chagos Islands, despite a Telegraph report claiming the White House was considering a plan to purchase the islands from Mauritius.

The Mauritian government has acknowledged the information reported by the Telegraph, stating that as of now, it hasn’t received any official proposal or been contacted, directly or indirectly, by the US administration about a separate agreement involving Diego Garcia or the Chagos Archipelago.

“Mauritius’s position remains unchanged: its sovereignty over the Chagos (Archipelago) is non-negotiable.”

The Telegraph reported on Sunday that the plan was one of several options being drafted by the White House, outlined in a paper offering alternatives to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer handing over sovereignty of the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius.

In April, Britain’s government paused its plan to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, which host the U.S.-British Diego Garcia air base, after the deal drew criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump.

In February, Trump called the agreement a “big mistake.”

In the late 1960s and 1970s, Britain forcibly removed up to 2,000 indigenous Chagossians to set up a base on the Diego Garcia atoll. Last year, however, it agreed to return sovereignty to its former colony Mauritius, while committing to pay 101 million pounds135 million) annually to maintain the installation.