After displeasing President Donald Trump by siding with Denmark in opposition to the thought of Greenland turning into a territory of america, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appears to have one other tough resolution to make now. Will he enable the U.S. to make use of the Diego Garcia navy base for strikes in opposition to Iran if and when it takes place?
On February 18, President Trump linked Diego Garcia to the US navy buildup for a potential strike on Iran.
“Ought to Iran determine to not make a Deal,’ he mentioned, ‘it could be mandatory for america to make use of Diego Garcia… with the intention to eradicate a possible assault by a extremely unstable and harmful Regime”, he mentioned.
Accordingly, Iran has formally protested to the United Nations, declaring that any use of Diego Garcia for an assault would make the bottom a “respectable goal” for its personal navy.
Since Diego Garcia is a UK territory as of right this moment, the US wants London’s permission to make use of the navy base in Diego Garcia in opposition to Iran, despite the fact that, and that’s an irony, it’s basically manned and managed by Washington.
Reportedly, Starmer shouldn’t be inclined to grant such permission, citing issues about worldwide regulation.
This British hesitancy was mentioned to be one of many explanation why the Trump Administration had stored Diego Garcia out of the operation in opposition to Iran’s nuclear services final 12 months. It was below the impression that asking for permission would virtually definitely have been denied by London.
Starmer doesn’t appear to be as assured as Trump in disregarding worldwide regulation. It’s well-known that, for Trump, nationwide pursuits should prevail over worldwide regulation.
For Starmer, it’s all the extra a difficult query, as he’s within the strategy of fulfilling his dedication to Mauritius over the “Sovereignty Switch” of Diego Garcia whereas securing the continued operation of the navy base there.
By the way, when “the Diego Garcia deal” was signed on Might 22, 2025, between the UK and Mauritius, the White Home welcomed it and known as it Starmer’s “monumental achievement” for securing the way forward for the navy base in Diego Garcia.
However Trump has now modified his opinion on the identical deal. In a publish on Reality Social on January 20, he lacerated Britain’s resolution to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands that embrace Diego Garcia. “Shockingly, our ‘sensible’ NATO Ally, the UK, is at present planning to provide away the Island of Diego Garcia, the positioning of an important U.S. Navy Base, to Mauritius, and to take action FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER,” he wrote.
Actually, justifying why the US wanted Greenland as a dependable base, Trump added, “The UK making a gift of extraordinarily vital land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is one other in a really lengthy line of Nationwide Safety explanation why Greenland needs to be acquired.”
On February 18, he repeated his criticism of the deal, this time within the context of its potential use for his deliberate strikes in opposition to Iran.
EurAsian Instances had as soon as defined that Diego Garcia, the core atoll of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), has been leased to the US since 1965 as a navy base, the place the US maintains its most vital abroad property within the Indian Ocean. The UK additionally shares these navy services.
It could be famous that within the early Nineteen Sixties, Washington had began talks with London in regards to the institution of a shared protection facility on Diego Garcia, the island chain that was part of the Chagos Archipelago (55 atoll islands), which, in flip, was surrendered by the Authorities of Mauritius on fee of compensation, along with three islands previously a part of Seychelles.
It was then known as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). After making the territory obtainable for joint protection functions of each the UK and the US in 1966, London eliminated the native inhabitants from the island between 1968 and 1973, deporting some to Mauritius, which had develop into unbiased in 1968, and the remaining to London (Sussex).
Mauritius by no means accepted Diego Garcia as British territory and claimed it as its personal. However the UK has ensured that not one of the deported folks return to the BIOT.
In June 2017, the United Nations Normal Meeting voted in favor of a decision tabled by Mauritius looking for an “advisory opinion” from the ICJ (Worldwide Court docket of Justice) in The Hague on the authorized standing of the Chagos Archipelago.
On February 25, 2019, the ICJ printed “the Advisory Opinion” on the matter: “The Court docket having discovered that the decolonization of Mauritius was not performed in a way in line with the precise of peoples to self-determination, it follows that the UK’s continued administration of the Chagos Archipelago constitutes a wrongful act entailing the worldwide accountability of that State…
“Accordingly, the UK is below an obligation to convey an finish to its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as quickly as potential, thereby enabling Mauritius to finish the decolonization of its territory in a way in line with the precise of peoples to self-determination.”
This advisory opinion was subsequently voted upon within the UN Normal Meeting, which, on Might 22, 2019, by an unprecedented majority of 116 to six, with 56 international locations abstaining, urged the UK to withdraw its “colonial administration” from the Chagos Archipelago unconditionally inside six months and restore it to Mauritius.
Solely six international locations – america, the UK, Australia, Israel, and the Maldives – voted in opposition to the decision. A complete of 56, together with main European international locations reminiscent of France, Germany, and the Netherlands, abstained.
It was in opposition to this background that the Labour authorities led by Starmer and Mauritius had negotiated the Might 2025 deal, whose most important options had been:
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After granting sovereignty to Mauritius, the UK will lease the island of Diego Garcia from Mauritius for an preliminary 99-year interval to keep up the joint UK-US navy base. This lease could be renewed for a further 40 years.
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The UK can pay Mauritius a median of £101 million ($136 million) per 12 months throughout the 99-year lease. The overall worth of the deal is estimated at roughly £3.4 billion.
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Native Chagossians, who had been forcibly eliminated within the Nineteen Sixties and 70s, might be permitted to resettle on any of the Chagos islands besides Diego Garcia, which stays restricted for navy use.
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There might be a 24-nautical-mile “exclusion zone” round Diego Garcia and a strict ban on international safety forces from different nations on the outer islands.
This deal, within the type of the Diego Garcia Navy Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Invoice, is at present present process ratification within the British Parliament. Although it accomplished its Home of Lords phases in January 2026, it’s now dealing with hurdles within the Home of Commons.
Other than the Trump issue (in spite of everything, the navy base is operated by the US), there are rising calls for inside Britain to rethink and negate the deal. A lot in order that the Starmer authorities now’s mentioned to have “paused for thought”.
Former UK International Secretary and an vital chief of the opposition Conservative occasion, William Hague’s Oped within the Instances on February 24 finest displays the above rising sentiment.
There are two vital arguments in Hague’s piece.
One, it’s not deal.
“The fee by the British taxpayer of billions — or tens of billions — of kilos to lease again land that’s at present ours is an excessive amount of”. It isn’t a lovely combination, as apparently, the entire value to the British taxpayer might attain £34.7 billion over the approaching century.
Two, Hague questions how the federal government can hand over ‘a sovereign territory to a different nation, with no regard to the needs of the earlier inhabitants’.
This is a vital query, because the Chagos Archipelago’s historic standing as a part of Mauritius is debatable. It’s the frequent colonial grasp, the UK that had clubbed them collectively for administrative functions prior to now and its folks don’t wish to be a part of Mauritius, the identical approach folks of the Falklands don’t wish to be a part of Argentina (that this argument doesn’t maintain for the Brishers basically within the circumstances of individuals of Crimea and Doesnetisk who need to stay with Russia, not Ukraine is a special matter).
Hague says that “the inhabitants of the Chagos Islands, ruthlessly evicted by Britain by 1973 to make approach for the US navy base on Diego Garcia, had suffered a severe injustice. Many had gone to Mauritius and largely lived in poverty, whereas others had settled round Crawley in Sussex, with the outcome that MPs for that city have at all times been eloquent advocates of their trigger.
“There are about 3,500 of the unique Chagossians and their descendants residing within the UK. A small group of them have landed on the islands prior to now week to register their sturdy opposition to the treaty, as they really feel no reference to Mauritius and that nation can be below no responsibility to permit their return. All of the proof means that the overwhelming majority of Chagossians within the UK oppose the treaty”.
Seen thus, Hargue concludes that “Trump is true: the Chagos deal is a mistake. As international secretary, I might have been ashamed to again a treaty that disregards the islanders and fleeces the taxpayer. If any court docket judgment informed us at hand over the Falklands or Gibraltar, we’d reply that the self-determination of the inhabitants is the overriding consideration. On this case, in fact, there are not any inhabitants, and in consequence, their proper to self-determination has by no means been recognised by Britain. However the one motive they don’t seem to be inhabitants is that we forcibly eliminated them from their properties. I don’t suppose I might have introduced myself to conform to a treaty that absolutely ignored their needs”.
Curiously, inside these debates, there may be additionally one faculty of thought that suggests that “Washington can midwife an unbiased Chagossian state by recognizing a Chagossian government-in-exile and negotiating instantly with it over the islands’ future. Working with that authorities and ideally with the UK, the US ought to suggest a binding referendum amongst Chagossians on three choices for his or her future: i) affiliation with Mauritius; ii) continued British sovereignty; or iii) a COFA with the U.S.”
It could be famous that the COFA (Compacts of Free Affiliation) are worldwide treaties between america and three Pacific island nations: the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and the Republic of Palau. These agreements set up a partnership wherein the US supplies monetary help, protection, and eligibility for sure federal companies in alternate for unique navy entry and strategic management of the area, that are essential to Indo-Pacific safety.
Of those choices, the U.S./Chagossian COFA is by far one of the best, says Kevin R. James, an economist within the Systemic Danger Centre on the London Faculty of Economics. “ A U.S./Chagossian COFA would allow the Chagossians to construct a affluent and unbiased future whereas placing the vital U.S. base at Diego Garcia on a safe and steady authorized footing”.
Be that as it could, one factor is now fairly apparent: the U.S. wants the Diego Garcia navy base below its full management, whether or not the UK desires it or not.
All informed, the bottom has served as an anchor for American operations.
It was a vital, high-volume launchpad for US air operations within the 1991 Gulf Battle and 2003 Iraq Battle. And within the early 2000’s, the bottom offered help for US airstrikes in Afghanistan, concentrating on Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. In 2024 and 2025, the US used the bottom to launch operations in opposition to the Houthis in Yemen.
In any case, the bottom at Diego Garcia has an intensive airfield with runways lengthy sufficient to accommodate giant navy plane, together with B-2 and B-52 bombers, KC-135 tankers, reconnaissance plane, and transport planes. It additionally has main gasoline storage services, radar installations, and management towers that may help regional navy operations.
It additionally hosts a deep-water port that may dock, resupply, and supply upkeep to giant naval vessels, together with plane carriers, destroyers, and submarines. There are a number of piers and docks outfitted with fashionable programs to help speedy response operations.
Contemplating all this, the way forward for Diego Garcia has implications not just for Mauritius’ eventual sovereignty but additionally for the well being of US-UK relations.
Will Starmer rethink final 12 months’s deal below Trump’s strain? Time will inform.
- Creator and veteran journalist Prakash Nanda is Chairman of the Editorial Board of the EurAsian Instances and has been commenting on politics, international coverage, and strategic affairs for practically three a long time. He’s a former Nationwide Fellow of the Indian Council for Historic Analysis and a recipient of the Seoul Peace Prize Scholarship.
- CONTACT: prakash.nanda (at) hotmail.com
