US President Donald Trump has described the agreement that Britain signed to transfer sovereignty of Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Islands, to Mauritius as a "huge folly", drawing attention to the agreement eight months after it was signed, Reuters reported, BTA reports.
Britain signed the agreement worth billions of dollars after a court injunction was lifted at the last minute, thus securing London's lease on the strategically important US-British base on Diego Garcia for the next century.
Here are some key facts about the islands and the dispute agreement.
Displacement of the island's indigenous people
The Chagos Archipelago is a group of six atolls consisting of more than 600 islands in the Indian Ocean south of the Maldives. It is located between Africa and Indonesia. There are currently about 4,000 people on the islands, and there are no indigenous Chagos or Iloa people living on the archipelago since Britain forcibly displaced 2,000 people, mostly agricultural workers, from the islands in the late 1960s and early 1970s to build a base on the island. Diego Garcia.
The Agreement
Under increasing pressure from the international community, Britain agreed in 2024 to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, a former colony of its, which declared independence in 1968. However, the agreement has been criticized by both lawmakers and Britons born on Diego Garcia.
In May last year, Britain said it would pay Mauritius £101 million a year, estimated at nearly £3.4 billion over the entire period the agreement is in force, to secure its lease on the military base on the island of Diego Garcia for 99 years.
At the time, the US "welcomed the historic agreement", praising the leaders of both countries for their vision. Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India also supported the agreement.
Significance
Diego Garcia is a key military base in the Indian Ocean for the US and the UK. Recent operations launched from the base include bombing Houthi targets in Yemen in 2024 and 2025, delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and attacks on Taliban and Al Qaeda targets in 2001.
China's influence in the region is also growing, with Beijing maintaining close trade relations with Mauritius.
Opinion of the International Court of Justice
Britain separated the archipelago from its colony of Mauritius in 1965, three years before granting the island independence. In 2019, at the request of the UN General Assembly, the International Court of Justice issued a legally non-binding ruling calling on Britain to relinquish control of the archipelago, saying that British authorities wrongfully forced the islands' residents to leave so that the military base could be built.
Concerns
Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed concern last February about potential threats to US security, given Chinese influence in the region.
Mauritian Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam, who was elected after the initial agreement was struck, also questioned it when he took office. He said he would like Trump to look at the agreement and see if it was a good one.
Some indigenous people of the Chagos Islands, many of whom are living in Britain after being displaced from the archipelago, have protested against the agreement, saying the British authorities have failed to take their views into account. Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition in Britain, wrote on the social network "Ex" today that the agreement "is complete self-sabotage" and that it has weakened "both us and our NATO allies."
Legal hurdle
Before the agreement was to be signed, a judge at the UK High Court granted a last-minute injunction, sought at the insistence of Bernadette Dugas and Bertrice Pomp, British citizens born on Diego Garcia. The magistrate also criticized the agreement for excluding the indigenous people of Chagos. The injunction was lifted hours later by the Supreme Court, allowing the agreement to be finalized.