Chagos Deal Frozen as U.S. Backs Away

Britain has run out of time to pass legislation transferring sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, after the United States withdrew the formal support London said it needed to proceed.

The pause freezes a deal that would have handed sovereignty of the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius while allowing Britain to lease back the Diego Garcia base for at least 99 years. AP reported that the current parliamentary session is due to end in the coming weeks, and the bill is not expected to be included in the next legislative program beginning May 13.

The British government said Diego Garcia remains “a key strategic military asset” for both London and Washington. It said the agreement was designed to protect the base’s long-term future, but added that Britain had always said it would move only with U.S. backing.

That backing changed after President Donald Trump reversed course. AP said Trump had initially supported the arrangement, then denounced it in January as “an act of GREAT STUPIDITY.” The BBC reported that British officials were still waiting for the formal exchange of letters from Washington that was required to enact the treaty.

The deal had become one of the clearest tests of how far Britain could balance legal pressure, alliance management and domestic politics at the same time. The United Nations and the International Court of Justice have both urged Britain in recent years to return the islands to Mauritius, according to AP.

In London, ministers framed the agreement as a way to secure the base against future legal challenges. In conservative British politics, opponents cast it as paying to give away territory at a time of fiscal strain. Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservatives, said the proposal had never been in the British national interest, according to the BBC.

In Washington, the debate has turned less on decolonisation than on strategic reliability. Diego Garcia has supported U.S. operations from Vietnam to Afghanistan, and AP said it was also used in the recent U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. That military role gave critics of the transfer an argument that carried more weight with Trump’s administration than international legal rulings did.

Mauritius, for its part, has treated the delay as a political setback rather than a final collapse. The BBC quoted Mauritian Attorney General Gavin Glover as saying the decision did not surprise his government and did not mean the legislation could not return to Parliament later.

The story also remains personal for displaced Chagossians. AP reported that islanders who were removed from Diego Garcia in the 1960s and 1970s to make way for the base say they were not properly consulted and fear the deal would make it harder for them to return. An estimated 10,000 displaced Chagossians and their descendants now live mainly in Britain, Mauritius and the Seychelles, AP said.

That leaves three claims competing for priority. British officials say the treaty was the best way to secure the base. Critics in Britain say shelving it protects national security and public money. Chagossian campaigners say both governments have spoken over the people who lost their homes.

The dispute now moves to the next parliamentary session, where the government must decide whether to reintroduce the legislation after May 13 or leave the agreement in what former senior diplomat Simon McDonald called a “deep freeze,” according to the BBC.