As the war with Iran is or is not coming to an end, another foreign policy problem also may or may not be nearing resolution, that of what to do with the Chagos Islands.
Under Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the UK government had for unintelligible reasons planned to give these strategically important islands to Mauritius while also paying an exorbitant price to lease the Diego Garcia military base, which is used by both the United Kingdom and the United States. Turning over the islands to the Mauritius government would make the base more susceptible to Chinese influence and sabotage.
The U.S. is considering a proposal to safeguard the base from dumb UK policy: buying the islands from the UK (The Telegraph, June 7).
US officials have drawn up a proposal to bypass Britain and make its own deal to take control of Diego Garcia, the strategically important UK-US military base, amid uncertainty about its future, The Telegraph understands.
It is among several options drafted by Donald Trump’s administration in a paper aimed at providing alternatives to the Prime Minister’s plan, which would hand control of the islands to Mauritius, an ally of China and Iran.
The White House has been in regular discussions with Downing Street about securing the future of Diego Garcia, one US official with knowledge of the discussions told The Telegraph.
While purchasing the islands is not the leading solution for the White House, the idea has been raised directly with Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, who has brought the matter to the president’s attention, sources said….
The president initially supported Sir Keir’s deal to give the islands away, but then chose to scuttle it after Sir Keir refused to allow the US to use Diego Garcia to carry out strikes on Iran in the opening hours of the war.
But according to The Telegraph, “To take control of the islands, Washington would first have to allow Sir Keir’s deal to go through, then negotiate with the Mauritians once sovereignty had been transferred.” Huh?
What the U.S. wants to do or should want to do is prevent any period of even five minutes during which Mauritius has control of the islands. Once Mauritius does attain that control, it could then say, “We don’t want to sell to you, United States.” Especially if Beijing tells Mauritius: “Don’t sell those islands to the United States.” Just weeks ago, Mauritius reminded everybody of the ease with which it may succumb to CCP pressure by refusing overflight rights to the plane of Republic of China President Lai Ching-te as he was trying to get to Eswatini.
Swedish writer John Gustavsson agrees that in its current form, the idea being floated that the U.S. buy the Chagos Islands is flawed because of its assumption that the UK would first transfer control of the islands to Mauritius. “Only then would the U.S. be able to purchase the islands… The likelihood that Mauritius would sell the islands right after finally gaining them is, to put it nicely, small.”
Second, in the unlikely scenario that Mauritius was willing to consider selling, America would almost certainly not be the only bidder…. Mauritius’s ties to China are strong and have only grown stronger since Mauritius became the first African country to sign a free trade agreement with China.
Third, British conservatives have spent considerable efforts delaying and rallying public opinion against the deal, including lobbying Washington. To strike a deal with Mauritius, without even first having offered to buy the islands directly from Britain, would be seen as a betrayal by a considerable number of the not-too-many friends America still has in Europe.
So far, delay has amounted to victory in the case of the Chagos Islands. Had the U.S. president not raised a fuss about the turnover, Mauritius would probably have already gained control of the islands, rendering the Diego Garcia base vulnerable to whatever machinations by the People’s Republic of China would have ensued. But defeat can still be snatched from the jaws of victory.
