The British government’s decision to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is a profound strategic error, rooted in a misunderstanding of international law and a failure to protect the UK’s vital national interests. Surrendering sovereignty over the Islands will have a deleterious effect on British and allied interests just as international strategic competition intensifies. It will undermine the overwhelmingly strong legal case for the UK’s continuing sovereignty in relation to a number of other crucial British territories. The government’s decision erodes sound legal principle for the sake of short-term point-scoring in an irrelevant diplomatic game. The government has blundered – Parliament and the public must hold it to account.
The Chagossians have not been properly consulted in these negotiations
The Chagos Islands, including strategically crucial Diego Garcia, have been under British control since 1814. For over two centuries, the UK has exercised sovereignty over this territory, which hosts a vital US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, leased by the UK to the United States after London withdrew its forces from east of the Suez Canal. Diego Garcia has served as an indispensable logistical hub for the US for over half a century. It facilitated crucial American operations, in which the UK participated as a key coalition member, to counter Iraqi aggression against Kuwait in 1990-1991, and the US-UK missions against the Taliban in 2001, while also supporting the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban afterwards. Diego Garcia’s facilities have been used to pre-position equipment, including enough materiel and ammunition for large Marine units to fight for a month on short notice.
The timing could hardly have been worse. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grinds into its third year. Just days ago, Iran rained ballistic missiles down on Israel. All the while, China menaces Taiwan, pressures the Philippines and Japan, threatens Indo-Pacific security and stability with its unprecedented military buildup, and aids Russia’s war effort in Europe. Handing over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in the midst of an accelerating world crisis is a grossly imprudent strategic move. Of course, the government insists that the US-UK Diego Garcia base will remain under the deal’s terms. But loss of sovereignty is loss of control – and ceding the Islands puts the future of the base in the medium and long term in doubt, especially if or when Mauritius comes under significant Chinese pressure.
The government’s decision appears to be predicated on a misinterpretation of recent legal proceedings, namely the 2019 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and a 2021 decision by a Special Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). But the ICJ’s opinion was not binding in international law, and the ITLOS decision was between Mauritius and the Maldives. Neither imposes any legal obligation on the UK, much less an obligation to hand over the Chagos.
State consent is foundational to modern international law. The ICJ badly abused its advisory jurisdiction by even hearing the request for an opinion in relation to the Chagos Islands. The request, which the UN General Assembly transmitted to the ICJ at Mauritius’s behest, sought, in reality, to get a judgment against the UK that Mauritius could not have gotten through a normal consent-based day in court. The government’s evident capitulation to international pressure arising out of abuse of the ICJ’s advisory jurisdiction sets a dangerous precedent, undermining a key pillar of international legal order. The best way to respond to the ICJ’s overreach is to treat the Chagos opinion as the advisory opinion that it is. The government, instead, ignoring the geopolitical gravity of the matter as well as legal principle, has treated it effectively as the final word.
This handover sets a dangerous precedent for other British overseas territories
The decision to hand over the Islands is not justified by the complex historical context. The link between Mauritius and the Chagos Islands is tenuous at best, amounting to little more than an accident of colonial history. Mauritius agreed to sell the islands and renounce its rights over them in 1965, a decision reaffirmed upon its independence in 1968 by those independence leaders who negotiated the agreement. Mauritius only changed tack a decade and a half later, launching a legal offensive in 1982.
Perhaps the government has acted now in a misguided attempt to address the plight of the Chagossian people. But handing over the islands to Mauritius is no solution. The Chagossians have not been properly consulted in these negotiations. Mauritius pays no heed to their position. Indeed, the UK has been far more direct in addressing Chagossian concerns, extending British citizenship to them in 2022.
As Policy Exchange warned in our report ‘Sovereignty and Security in the Indian Ocean’ the strategic importance of the Indo-Pacific region is only growing; and with an increasingly assertive China, the significance of the Chagos Islands is unmistakable. Any assurances from Mauritius regarding Diego Garcia’s future are not bankable, especially since China has targeted Mauritius for economic expansion, providing Mauritius with nine-figure loans and, more recently, signing a currency swap agreement with Mauritius. A future Mauritian government may well allow Chinese military and intelligence presence on the islands, along with contesting continued US-UK base access.
This handover sets a dangerous precedent for other British overseas territories. It may encourage territorial irredentism worldwide and potentially jeopardise the statehood of post-colonial sovereign states. We are already witnessing Argentina using this situation to push for negotiations over the Falklands. The sovereignty of Gibraltar and the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus could be next. The latter is crucial to the UK’s Middle Eastern posture, especially in light of escalating tensions between Israel, Iran, and Iranian-aligned terrorists.
The government must urgently reconsider its position and reaffirm the UK’s sovereignty over the Chagos Islands. It should not sign a treaty of cession and should instead join in defending UK sovereignty over the Islands, as past governments across the political spectrum have done. If it does not, Parliament must hold the government to account, refusing to support any treaty of cession and demanding a thorough review of the Foreign Ministry’s legal and strategic practices.
This is in no way a matter of territorial pride or historical legacy. It is about safeguarding our national security, upholding the principles of international law, and maintaining strategic stability in a critical region of the world.
Handing over the Chagos Islands, especially on such flawed legal premises, is an irresponsible act that puts those strategic interests – and those of our closest allies – in grave danger.
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