The US president previously called Britain’s plan to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius “absolutely stupid”.
The United States is evaluating a plan to buy the Chagos Islands outright from Mauritius in a bid to sideline Britain over the future of a key military base in the Indian Ocean, the Telegraph reported on Sunday.
The Chagos Islands are home to Diego Garcia, a joint British-American military base considered one of the most important US bases outside the continental United States. The base houses about 2,500 US military personnel and supports the deployment of B-2 bombers, operations against Houthi targets in Yemen, and has been used in strikes against Iran.
While the Chagos Islands are currently under British control, London last year approved a plan to hand them over to Mauritius while signing a 99-year treaty on the base. Britain’s hand was essentially forced by the decades-long colonial independence dispute, where the International Court of Justice ruled in 2019 that Britain’s 1965 separation of the islands from Mauritius was illegal and a violation of the right to self-determination.
While US President Donald Trump initially supported the plan, in January he announced the plan “very stupid act” and a threat to national security, while warning that China and Russia “I have discovered this act of complete weakness.” Britain later put the plan in place hold onpending negotiations with the United States.
now, “US officials have made a (buying) proposal to bypass Britain and make its agreement to take control of Diego Garcia,” according to the Telegraph. The plan is among several options being discussed within the Trump administration and attracted US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who presented it to Trump, the report says.
If the United States approves the deal, Britain will first have to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, and then Washington will negotiate the purchase with the Mauritians. The move would therefore leave Britain as a bystander in a dispute over territory it has held for more than two centuries.
The Mauritian government said, as quoted by Reuters, that it was “considering the information reported by the Telegraph” but “has not received any official proposal” from the United States. He also emphasized that the independence of the republic on the Chagos Islands is “non-negotiable.”
The report comes after Trump revived talks to buy Greenland from Denmark and has repeatedly mentioned Canada as “The 51st State,” moves that put further strain on Washington’s already uneasy relationship with its traditional allies.
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