Letting Go

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The United Kingdom on Thursday agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending a decades-long dispute over the Indian Ocean archipelago that is home to a strategic US-UK military base, Politico reported.

On Thursday, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth announced a “seminal moment” in their political agreement over the archipelago’s future.

Under the deal, the UK will return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, except for the island of Diego Garcia which houses a US base for naval ships and long-range bomber aircraft.

Diego Garcia Island will remain under US and UK jurisdiction for at least the next 99 years.

The agreement will also see Mauritius implement a program of resettlement, while the UK will provide a financial support package to boost development in the archipelago.

In a joint statement, the two countries said the agreement “will address wrongs of the past and demonstrate the commitment of both parties to support the welfare of Chagossians.”

The dispute over the archipelago dates back to the 1960s.

Mauritius has argued that it was forced to give up the islands after it became independent from the UK in 1968. The UK expelled between 1,500 and 2,000 Chagossians in the 1960s and 1970s so that it could lease Diego Garcia Island to the US for military use.

The two allies have jointly operated the base there since that period, according to the Guardian.

The recent agreement follows rounds of negotiations that began in 2022, three years after the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion that the UK had unlawfully separated the Chagos Islands from Mauritius.

The court said the UK was “under an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible.”

The previous Conservative government had rejected calls to return the islands, countering that the ICJ’s ruling was only an advisory opinion.

Despite receiving support from the current Labour government and the United States, the decision to cede the archipelago sparked criticism from the Conservative opposition in the UK.

Shadow Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, who is running for the Conservative party leadership, argued that the move “compromises both our national security and the stability of the region.”

The Chagossian community also remained divided over the agreement, with some saying they would have preferred self-determination to being under the jurisdiction of Mauritius.

Chagossian Voices, a community organization for Chagossians based in the UK and other countries, admonished the British government for failing to consult with the islanders before making the agreement.

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