Trump has the right to consider a deal with the Chagos Islands

US President-elect Donald Trump will be consulted on the UK’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands – home to a joint US-British military base – to Mauritius.

The United Kingdom announced in October that it would cede sovereignty over the Indian Ocean archipelago, but retain control of the base on Diego Garcia, the largest island, under a 99-year lease .

Efforts were made to obtain the The treaty was signed before Trump’s inauguration on Monday, according to the BBC, and the Mauritian cabinet was expected to approve the deal on Wednesday.

But “overnight, the British position changed,” a Mauritian source close to the negotiations told the BBC.

The deal had already received the green light from the Biden administration, but the British prime minister’s office said on Wednesday that the incoming Trump administration would now “review” the deal.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it was “entirely reasonable for the US administration to review the details” of any deal.

But Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel said the latest development was a “total humiliation” for the Prime Minister, as Labor was “desperate to sign the surrender of the Chagos Islands before the return to power of President Trump.”

In October, President Biden had already welcomed the “historic agreement” which, according to him, guaranteed the future of a base which “plays a vital role in national, regional and global security”.

It’s unclear whether the Trump administration would have any objections. The new president has not commented publicly on the deal.

But new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it posed a “serious threat”, arguing it would give the islands a country aligned with China. Mauritius has a trade agreement with China.

British reform leader and Trump ally Nigel Farage said he believed a deal would damage Sir Keir’s relationship with the US president-elect.

“When the Americans realize that… Diego Garcia, their most important military base in the world, is in danger of becoming virtually useless, I believe that the special relationship will be broken in a way that will not be repaired during this government,” he told the BBC.

But at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir defended the deal, pointing out that negotiations began under the last Conservative government. He insisted that this agreement was the best way to safeguard the military base.

Reports had suggested that Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam would sign a deal on Wednesday while attending a cabinet meeting, but it was later announced that his attorney general was traveling to London to continue negotiations.

The United Kingdom took control of the Chagos Islands, or British Indian Ocean Territory, from its then colony of Mauritius in 1965 and later expelled its population of more than 1,000 to make way for the base by Diego Garcia.

Mauritius, which gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1968, has maintained that the islands belong to it, and the U.N.’s highest court ruled in an advisory opinion that Britain’s administration of the territory was “illegal”.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the prime minister was “negotiating a secret deal to hand over British territory and the taxpayers of this country would pay for the humiliation”.

Badenoch said there was “no question of us giving up the British territory of Chagos”, saying Sir Keir was “rushing through a deal that would be disastrous” and cost British taxpayers billions of pounds.

The cost of the proposed UK deal has not been officially announced.

Responding to Badenoch, Sir Keir told PMQs the planned deal would ensure the Diego Garcia military base could continue to operate effectively.

An agreement on the Chagos Islands was first announced in October after years of negotiations.

But weeks later, after his election, Mr Ramgoolam said he had reservations about the draft treaty and called for an independent review.

In a joint statement in October, Mauritius and the United Kingdom said the agreement would “right past wrongs and demonstrate the commitment of both parties to supporting the well-being of the Chagossians.”

The people of the Chagos Islands – some in Mauritius and the Seychelles, but others living in Crawley in Sussex – do not speak with one voice about the fate of their homeland.

Some have criticized the deal, saying they were not consulted during the negotiations.

Under the proposed agreement, Mauritius will be able to launch a resettlement program on the Chagos Islands, but not on Diego Garcia.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy previously played down the criticism, saying it was a “very good deal” for “our national security” because it guaranteed the legal basis for the Diego military base. Garcia.

Diplomats on Wednesday said the decision to put the deal on hold until it was reviewed by the Trump administration made sense because the U.K. would not want its first commitment to result in a row over islands located deep in the Indian Ocean.

The Biden administration and U.S. military and intelligence agencies had agreed to the initial deal, agreeing that it gave a more stable basis for the legal status of the Diego Garcia.

But questions remained within the U.S. system about the extent to which the new agreement could pave the way for China to establish a strategic position in the islands.

It is unclear how the new President Trump will act, what advice he might receive during his term and whether he will have time to consider an issue considered secondary to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.