Trump Criticises the UK-Chagos Sovereignty Deal

President Donald Trump has criticised Britain’s deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius, calling it a sign of weakness and citing it as a reason for his goal to acquire Greenland.

The deal, endorsed by Washington last year, hands the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius while keeping the U.S. and UK military base on Diego Garcia under UK control through a 99-year lease.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the United Kingdom was planning to give away Diego Garcia “for no reason whatsoever”, and claimed China and Russia would notice what he called a national security failure.

The criticism adds pressure to relations between Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Starmer has spoken out against Trump’s ambition to take over Greenland and has urged calm dialogue to avoid a trade war after Trump threatened new levies linked to the Greenland issue.

The British government defended the Chagos agreement, saying the deal was driven by national security concerns after court decisions undermined Britain’s position and risked preventing the base from operating as intended in future.

The Chagos Archipelago includes six main atolls among more than 600 islands. Reuters reported the islands lie about 500 km south of the Maldives, with about 4,000 people stationed there.

Britain forcibly displaced up to 2,000 indigenous Chagossians in the late 1960s and 1970s to establish the base, Reuters reported. Under the deal, Britain is paying Mauritius 101 million pounds a year to secure the installation.

Mauritius Attorney General Gavin Glover said the country’s sovereignty over the archipelago had been recognised by international law and should no longer be debated. He said Mauritius expected the treaty to be implemented within the shortest possible time frames.

Reuters reported that recent operations launched from Diego Garcia included bombing strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen in 2024 and 2025, humanitarian aid deployments to Gaza, and attacks against Taliban and al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan in 2001.

British senior minister Darren Jones said the deal was already done and he could not see how it might be changed. Reuters also reported that Britain delayed signing the deal until after Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 to allow his administration time to examine the plan, and that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May last year that Trump supported the agreement.

Britain’s opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said she agreed with Trump’s criticism of the deal, arguing it weakened UK security. Reuters reported some Chagossians have also opposed the agreement, saying they were not consulted, and that a U.N. committee warned in December that the deal risks perpetuating long-standing violations of Chagossians’ rights.

Source: AP