U.S. Considers Buying Chagos Islands, Telegraph Reports
June 7 (Reuters) – The White House is considering a plan to buy the Chagos Islands from Mauritius, the Telegraph reported on Sunday.
The report stated that US officials were preparing a proposal to bypass Britain and make their own deal to gain control of Diego Garcia.
The report said the plan was among several options drawn up by the White House in a document aimed at offering alternatives to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s transfer of sovereignty of the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius.
“President Trump has been consistent in his position that the United Kingdom should not cede the British Indian Ocean Territory, which includes our joint US-UK military facility at Diego Garcia atoll,” a US official told Reuters.
“Diego Garcia’s strategic location in the Indian Ocean makes it a vital and indispensable military installation vital to the national security of the United States,” the official said, adding that the United States is in regular talks with Britain to maintain the island’s viability as a regional security platform.
The British government in April suspended an agreement to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, home to the US-British Diego Garcia air base, which was criticized by US President Donald Trump.
Trump said in February that the deal was a “big mistake.”
“The government inherited a situation where the UK’s control of the military base in Diego Garcia was under threat and action was necessary to protect the UK’s national interests and prevent our adversaries from establishing themselves in such a strategically important location,” a UK government spokesman said.
“Diego Garcia is an important strategic military asset for both the UK and the US, protecting our shared security for nearly 60 years,” the spokesman added. “Maintaining long-term operational control and security of Diego Garcia underpins the entire UK-Mauritius agreement, an agreement that arises from real long-term risks that both the UK and US know very well.”
(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan and Rhea Rose Abraham in Bengaluru and Bo Erickson in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese)
