The fate of the “joint” UK-U.S. base on Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands is not yet settled, Senator Kennedy reminds us (Newsweek, May 23, 2026).
Under the blundering stewardship of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the United Kingdom set the gears in motion to turn over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, “an African island nation that lacks any ability to deter China,” as Kennedy puts it. A manifestation of this inability was the country’s recent refusal, in obedience to the People’s Republic of China, to let the plane of Republic of China President Lai Ching-te fly through Mauritian airspace.
The Chagos deal, not yet quite completed, includes an agreement to pay Mauritius umpteen dollars per year for the privilege of using the base on what would become Mauritian soil.
Trump intervenes
Fortunately, Starmer could not turn over the islands unilaterally. While the agreement was still churning its way through Parliament, in February 2026 President Trump became newly alert to the dumbness of jeopardizing the base in this way and blasted Starmer’s plan on Truth Social. (GB News: “Mr Trump’s extraordinary attack will come as a major blow to Sir Keir, who may have thought US support for the deal was no longer up for question.”)
Trump’s loud objections thwarted the Parliamentary push to endorse the deal. But the deal isn’t quite dead. Senator Kennedy:
Diego Garcia has become a vital asset for the U.S. military to conduct training missions, reload submarines, and respond to tensions throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Our enemies understand that Diego Garcia is a pillar of America’s national security. That’s why it has been a target of Iran’s ballistic missile attacks.
America can defend our interests on Diego Garcia today because the Chagos Islands are British territory.
The leftists at the United Nations, however, want to change that. They unleashed a pressure campaign to shame the U.K. for maintaining any territory outside of Europe. The International Court of Justice—the U.N.’s kangaroo court—published a nonbinding opinion in 2021 calling for the U.K. to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which is more than 1,200 miles away and has no shared history.
Sadly, the U.K. bought into this foolishness and has attempted to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius…. U.K. officials attempted to strike a deal to give Diego Garcia to Mauritius and then lease it back from them for around $136 million per year.
Not only is this a terrible financial deal, but it’s also disastrous for our shared national security because Mauritius is slowly becoming a puppet of the Chinese Communist Party….
Mauritius joined the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and its 2024 Beijing Action Plan, which could mean that Mauritius is under a binding legal obligation to provide China with the opportunity to force inspections of the military equipment on Diego Garcia. Finally, China entered into extensive trade deals with Mauritius to sweeten the deal.
Mauritius has already shown that it will act in China’s interest. Two weeks ago, Mauritius revoked flight permits for Taiwan’s presidential aircraft to cross its airspace on a planned trip to visit allies, apparently at China’s behest.
There is no military asset as important as Diego Garcia when it comes to America’s ability to deter China, protect Taiwan, and otherwise maintain our interests in the Indo-Pacific. It would be weapons-grade stupid to sit by as the U.K. signs it away to a nation in Xi Jinping’s pocket.
Mautius’s participation in the China-Africa agreements may not really impose “a binding legal obligation” to let China inspect military equipment on Diego Garcia (should Mauritius take control of the islands). But real or spurious legal obligations are only one weapon in the CCP’s arsenal when it comes to bullying small countries, and Mauritius has indeed “already shown that it will act in China’s interest.”
Kennedy’s bill
Senator Kennedy is sponsoring a bill that would require Congress to approve any deal turning Diego Garcia over to Mauritius.
I’m not sure how such a legislative declaration could thwart the UK government if it were determined to harm itself and the United States by relinquishing the Chagos Islands. It would add to the pressure on the UK to refrain from doing so; good.
But as the past couple of years have proved, what the U.S. and others can do to stop various disastrous policies of the Labour government has severe limits, and the U.S. does not seem to have veto power over what happens to the Diego Garcia base. That it’s a “joint” UK-U.S. base, the way it is often described, is belied by the fact that Starmer initially refused permission to the United States to use the base to launch attacks on Iran. (Later, he said, okay, the U.S. can use the base, but only for carefully circumscribed “defensive” operations.) Perhaps some sense of the word “joint” validly describes the base. But it is not jointly controlled if the UK can prevent U.S. use at any time.
