It is Britain's last African colony, but the island of Diego Garcia that hosts the military base is an exception
After disputes lasting more than fifty years, Britain ceded the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
It is a tiny archipelago in the Indian Ocean, south of the Maldives and north of Mauritius, which was a French colony until 1814 when it was handed over to Britain. When Mauritius gained independence from London in 1968, Chagos were separated from the agreement, and a US naval and air base was being built on Diego Garcia Island starting in 1966, displacing 2000 islanders. It is considered one of the saddest chapters in European colonial history, and the displacement of the local population has been condemned – in 2019 alone – by both the United Nations and the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which declared the British presence on the islands illegal.
The agreement would now allow for the return of a significant portion of the Chagossians expelled from the United Kingdom, but the island of Diego Garcia would still be an exception, which, being of great geostrategic importance precisely in order to maintain control of the now Anglo-American base in the area, would remain under London’s control.
Meanwhile, there is no shortage of controversy in the UK: the choice by Keir Starmer’s Labour government to put an end to the issue by handing over the islands is seen by the Conservatives as a “shameful retreat that undermines British security.” Similarly, Conservatives fear a precedent could be set for the Falkland Islands, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which explained that the talks were led by Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff, who called the result reached “historic.”