UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed a deal surrendering sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, after a judge overturned a last-minute injunction that had blocked its finalization on May 22.
The agreement allows London to keep control of a strategically important U.S.–UK air base on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Indian Ocean archipelago, via a 99-year lease costing the UK some 3.4 billion pounds ($4.6 billion).
It also contains the option of a 50-year extension of the lease, with the UK keeping the right of first refusal.
The signing was meant to go ahead during a virtual ceremony on the morning of May 22, but that was delayed by several hours after a judge blocked the move in the early hours.
However, after a hearing at the High Court later on May 22, a different judge ruled that the deal could go ahead.
Judge Martin Chamberlain lifted the injunction—which had earlier been imposed by Judge Julian Goose—paving the way for the Labour government to cede the Indian Ocean territory to its former colony.
Government lawyer James Eadie said a decision was needed by 1 p.m. local time in order for the deal to be agreed to on May 22 and that “everyone is standing by.”
He said the delay was damaging to UK interests and that “there is jeopardy” to the UK’s international relations, including with its “most important security and intelligence partner, the U.S.”
After inking the handover agreement, Starmer said at a news conference: “The strategic location of this base is of the utmost significance to Britain, from deploying aircraft to defeat terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan to anticipating threats in the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific.
“By agreeing to this deal now, on our terms, we’re securing strong protections, including from malign influence, that will allow the base to operate well into the next century.”
“Why is Starmer so desperate to give away the islands?” he wrote. “There is no legal need, it will cost us approximately £52 billion [$70 billion], and play into the hands of China. Why?”
Conservative Shadow Justice Minister Robert Jenrick labeled the deal “a betrayal of Britain that will go down in infamy.”
Earlier, Judge Goose said he had granted “interim relief” to the applicants, Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe—both UK nationals born in Diego Garcia—who have criticized the lack of consultation with the Chagossian community during the negotiations.
“The defendant shall take no conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to a foreign government or bind itself as to the particular terms of any such transfer,” he said in his order.
That move required London to “maintain the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom over the British Indian Ocean Territory until further order.”
The later ruling overturned this.
In 2019, the highest court of the United Nations ruled in an advisory opinion that the UK’s administration of the territory was unlawful, increasing pressure on the UK to return the islands.
Between 1968 and 1973, the UK forcibly removed between 1,400 and 1,700 Chagossians to establish the Diego Garcia base. Many Chagossians were resettled in Mauritius and the Seychelles, and from 2002, some were allowed to move to the UK. UK laws have made it illegal for them to return without official permission.
The UK has since apologized for the forced removals and issued three compensation payments, the most recent in 2016.
Many Chagossians say they have been left out of decisions affecting their homeland and demand greater involvement in its future.
Recent operations out of Diego Garcia include strikes in Yemen against Houthi terrorists and aid deployments to the Gaza Strip.
Strikes against the Taliban terrorist group and the al-Qaeda terrorist group in Afghanistan were launched from the archipelago in 2001.
