Reuters

La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, October 4, 2024, p. 18

London. Britain announced yesterday that it will cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, as part of an agreement that secures the future of the British-American military base on Diego Garcia Atoll, and that could also pave the way for the return of people displaced long ago. decades.

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, welcomed the agreement, pointing out that it would guarantee the permanence of its strategically important air base in the Indian Ocean for the next century.

Critics in the United Kingdom said this was a capitulation in favor of China, which maintains close commercial ties with Mauritius. A group representing the islands’ displaced inhabitants criticized having been excluded from the talks.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the deal resolved the disputed sovereignty of the islands, the last British overseas territory in Africa, while continuing legal challenges had jeopardized the future of Diego Garcia, the base, whose Its importance was demonstrated during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as it worked for launching long-range bombers, and is now guaranteed for 99 years, he added.

Britain, which has controlled the region since 1814, separated the Chagos Islands in 1965 from Mauritius, a former colony that became independent three years later.

In the early 1970s, Britain evicted nearly 2,000 residents to Mauritius and the Seychelles in order to set up an air base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the 55 islands in the archipelago, which it had leased to the United States in 1966.

A non-binding resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in 2019 stated that Britain should relinquish control of the archipelago after having unfairly forced the population to abandon it. However, prominent figures from the British opposition Conservative Party criticized that the agreement undermines Britain’s allies and China could grow militarily in the Indian Ocean.