POLITICS
UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius
October 3, 2024 - The UK has announced it is giving up sovereignty of a remote but strategically important cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean after more than half a century.
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The deal – reached after years of negotiations – will see the UK hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a historic move.
This includes the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia, used by the U.S. government as a military base for its navy ships and long-range bomber aircraft.
The announcement, made in a joint statement by the British and Mauritian Prime Ministers on Thursday, ends decades of often fractious negotiations between the two countries over the islands.
The U.S.-UK base will remain on Diego Garcia – a key factor enabling the deal to go forward at a time of growing geopolitical rivalries in the region between Western countries, India, and China.
The deal is still subject to finalisation of a treaty but both sides have vowed to complete this as quickly as possible, the BBC said.