Although it may seem strange, and Israel against Iran have been echoed in nearly 60 islands that make up the remote Chagos Archipelago, in the middle of the vast Indian Ocean, halfway between eastern Africa, southern India and western Indonesia and Australia. The group of atolls still holds the unhappy title of the “last African colony” of the United Kingdom. Hence it is called the British Indian Ocean Territory and houses a military base shared between the United Kingdom and the United States on one of its islands. That’s the thing.
Chagos was first a French colony and then, from 1810, a British colony. Between 1967 and 1973, the United Kingdom expelled the few Chagossians that were on the islands from the archipelago. so that the United States could build a large military base on the island of Diego Garcíapart of Chagos and in a highly coveted geostrategic position. But Chagos, in reality, belongs to the Republic of Mauritius, although the United Kingdom, in order to maintain the British-American military presence, appropriated it before the decolonization process of this last island nation in 1968.
Since then, Mauritius and the Seychelles islands have claimed the Chagos Archipelago as theirs and, in 2019, judges at the International Court of Justice ruled in favor of the former. “Under international law, the decolonization process of Mauritius was not legally completed when Mauritius became independent in 1968, following the separation of the Chagos Archipelago. The United Kingdom has an obligation to end its administration as quickly as possible.“, the international court ruled in its advisory opinion.
Although international justice gave the British six months to give up their last colony, it was not until last year, 2025, that its prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced an agreement with Mauritius. Chagos would return to the administrative control of Mauritius and the United Kingdom would rent the island from Diego García for €120 million a year for 99 years. In this way, both British and Americans would secure their joint military base. “This is absolutely vital for our defense and intelligence,” Starmer declared last May.
While “the full assessment” of the “importance” of Diego Garcia Island is “highly rated,” Keir Starmer noted that From there they had deployed “aircraft to defeat terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan”, in addition to being essential for “anticipating threats in the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific.”. “It has helped us counter threats to the United Kingdom, support counter-terrorism operations against the Islamic State and reduce the risk to the brave British and American military,” said the British Prime Minister.
And what does what is happening in Iran currently have to do with all this? When Starmer advanced the agreement with Mauricio, He also said that US President Donald Trump had “welcomed the agreement”. Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, also celebrated the “historic” agreement. “It guarantees the stable, effective and long-term operation of the joint US-British military base in Diego García, crucial for regional and global security,” defended Rubio.
But everything changed a few weeks ago, after Trump threatened to use the base in Diego García and other US bases in the United Kingdom, such as Fairford in Gloucestershire, to attack Iran.. The British Government () and the American president then decided to change their opinion on the agreement reached with Mauritius. If at the beginning of February he still thought that it was the best agreement that could be reached, once he learned of Starmer’s decision to block the use of its bases, he said that It would be “a big mistake” to renounce the sovereignty of Chagos. “From a legal point of view, it would have been much better if he had simply retained ownership of the land and not given it to people who were not the rightful owners,” he said.
This last-minute change of opinion has forced the United Kingdom Government to have to shelve the bill to finally cede the sovereignty of the archipelago as it ran out of time to move it forward in the current parliamentary session. Despite everything, the news has not surprised Mauritius. “Not surprising. Britain needs US approval to move forward”said Mauritius Attorney General Gavin Glover. For his part, the Mauritian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ritish Ramful, has assured that “Mauritius does not rule out any way, diplomatic or legal, to complete the decolonization process“.
