UK Set to Sign Agreement on Chagos Islands with Mauritius
London: The UK is poised to sign a contract with Mauritius concerning the future of the Chagos Islands after a High Court in London lifted an 11-hour injunction that had previously halted the agreement.
Earlier on Thursday, a lawyer representing British citizens born in the Chagos Islands successfully obtained a provisional injunction that delayed the formal signing of a treaty intended to secure the future of the critical US Diego Garcia Air Base.
However, following a hearing later that day, Judge Martin Chamberlain removed the injunction, allowing Britain to proceed with a multi-billion-dollar agreement to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The announcement of this agreement was made back in October and permits the UK to retain authority over the strategically significant Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Indian Ocean, under a 99-year lease.
The deal is expected to be finalized soon after the court’s decision to lift the injunction.
Government attorney James Eady indicated that the agreement was confirmed on Thursday, noting that a decision was needed by 12:00 GMT, emphasizing that “everyone is on standby.”
Eady also remarked that delays have negatively impacted UK interests and posed risks to “our international relations, particularly with our key security and intelligence partner, the United States.”
This injunction had been issued following the actions of Batris Pompe, a British citizen from Diego Garcia, who criticized the contract for excluding the Chagossians from the decision-making process.
This legal challenge is the latest in a series of actions over the last two decades initiated by members of the broader Chagossian community, who were forcibly removed from the Indian Ocean archipelago over 50 years ago.
While they argued that they couldn’t support the agreement without consultation, critics also voiced concerns that this deal could shift control to China, given its strong trade ties with Mauritius.
In 1965, Britain separated the Chagos Islands from Mauritius, which was then a colony that gained independence three years later, establishing the British Indian Ocean Territory.
