A Foreign Office minister has said it has become “impossible to agree at a political level” a treaty handing over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and that a related bill will not pass Parliament.
Stephen Doughty told the Commons that the deal with Mauritius was initially negotiated in close coordination with the US, but Donald Trump’s position “appears to have changed”.
The UK government was forced to shelve its legislation to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after the US dropped its support for the agreement.
As part of the deal, the UK was to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, and lease Diego Garcia Island, the site of a joint UK-US military base, for 99 years to continue operations.
Doughty said Trump had initially described the treaty as “very strong and powerful”, adding that the document had been “thoroughly tested at all levels of the United States system under two administrations and found to be robust”.
But with US support withdrawn, Doughty said it had become impossible to agree an update to the 1966 UK-US agreement, known as the “exchange of notes”, on the availability for defense purposes of British Indian Ocean territories.
Doughty told MPs that it was necessary to update the 1966 agreement in order to ratify the treaty, and therefore “the Diego Garcia Bill cannot be passed in this parliamentary session and cannot be moved forward due to its advanced progress through Parliament”.
He added: “The government remains convinced that the Diego Garcia Treaty is the best means for us and our allies to protect the full operation of the military base for future generations.”
The blow to Britain’s bid to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is a sign of the deterioration in US-UK relations following Keir Starmer’s heavy criticism of Trump over his stance on the Iran war.
Doutley said: “Delaying the treaty will be sad news for many Chagossians – although I do not accept all – who see it as the only viable means for a permanent program of resettlement which Mauritius will be able to implement under its own terms.”
