Mauritius is reportedly demanding extra funding from the UK and billions in compensation for the Chagos Islands deal, just as the Rwandan immigration scheme soured his predecessor Rishi Sunak. appears to be becoming an embarrassment for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
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The Chagos Islands deal appears to be becoming a thorn in the side for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, just as the Rwandan immigration scheme was a thorn in his predecessor Rishi Sunak’s as Britain and the Mauritian government continue to spar over payments. is.
In a historic announcement in October 2024, the UK and Mauritian governments announced that the UK would hand over sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, a group of approximately 60 islands located approximately 1,000 kilometers off the Indian subcontinent, to Mauritius, securing a 99-island nation. announced that they had agreed. Annual lease of a US-UK strategic military base on Diego Garcia, one of the islands in the archipelago.
Immediately after the agreement was announced, Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, who had led the deal negotiations, suffered a landslide defeat in the election. Mauritius’ new government, led by Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam, has ordered a review of the agreement. It subsequently emerged that Prime Minister Ramgoolam had effectively stalled the deal, as the new government demanded more money from Britain than was stipulated in the agreement originally negotiated by the Jugnauth government.
The impasse facing Mr Starmer is similar to the situation faced by Mr Sank over his Rwandan immigration plans. In 2022, the Conservative government announced the Rwanda Plan, which would see all illegal immigrants entering the UK from 2022 onwards transferred to Rwanda in Africa, where their asylum claims would be processed. The plan was never implemented amid widespread domestic opposition.
Starmer proposes advance payment to Mauritius: Report
Although the Mauritian government has never explicitly stated publicly that the issue of the Chagos Islands agreement is a money issue, the country’s leaders have indicated that it is.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Mauritius’ Deputy Prime Minister Paul Belanger said last week that the British government was “arguing about a small amount of money” and that the British government was delaying a deal because of the funding it despises. He told parliament that he had suggested that
In the weeks since reports first surfaced that the deal was stalled, the UK government has reportedly proposed bringing forward several years’ worth of payments in order to preserve the deal, following a middle-ground approach, Bloomberg reported.
However, the Mauritian government may not be satisfied yet as it has too many demands.
GB News reported that sources said the Mauritian government had asked for £800 million, along with “billions of pounds in compensation”.
Starmer’s government never specified the amount, but the UK Foreign Office told the Daily Mail that “a sum of this magnitude was never considered at any point in negotiations between the UK and Mauritius.”
GB News reported that one of the reasons the previous Sunak government did not sign the deal was because of the price Mauritius was demanding.
What was the original contract and what is the current status?
Initially, the British and Mauritian governments agreed that Britain would cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, in exchange for a 99-year lease of Diego Garcia to a U.S.-British military base. Under the agreement, Britain would pay annual rent for the island for 99 years, as well as funding infrastructure development in the area. Mauritius’ new government has stalled the deal, deeming the funding provided inadequate.
As a middle ground approach to this, Starmer proposed paying several years’ worth of payments upfront.
According to a report in the Financial Times, the deal under consideration involves paying nearly £90m a year for 99 years, so Mr Starmer’s proposal would allow Mauritius to make payments without changing the total amount. It would provide a one-time payment of hundreds of millions of pounds. Transaction amount.
However, as reported by GB News, Mauritius is also understood to have demanded billions more in compensation.
The London Times reported that British government sources said the Mauritian government was asking for too much and Britain was unlikely to agree.
“There’s no bottomless money pit that we can sign. There’s a ticking clock. If they want the money and want a deal, there’s a hard deadline coming up,” the source said. spoke.
Will President Trump abandon the Chagos Islands agreement?
The US government will also need to be involved in the plan, as the UK jointly operates the Diego Garcia base with the US.
President Trump has yet to say anything about the deal, but some in the incoming administration, including National Security Adviser Mike Walz, oppose it.
“Diego Garcia is the most important base option to counter the growing threat of the Chinese Communist Party in the Indian Ocean region, and ceding control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius would represent a major strategic victory for the Chinese Communist Party. Possibly,” Walz said in 2022.
But an unlikely reason may be keeping the deal alive: President Trump’s partnership with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
GB News quoted officials as saying. “President Trump hasn’t said anything about this. Trump has described[Indian Prime Minister Narendra]Modi as his best friend in the whole world, and Modi wants this deal.”
