Mauritius has long argued it was forced to give the Chagos Islands away in return for its own independence from Britain, with more than 1,000 islanders forcibly removed at the request of the U.S.
A 2019 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, which adjudicates on disputes between nations, found that the detachment of the Chagos Islands from Mauritius was “not based on the free and genuine expression of the will of the people concerned.”
It said the U.K. was “under an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible.”
The foreign secretary also highlighted that negotiations had begun under the previous Conservative government, and said indecision threatened the future of the base, potentially harming U.S. relations.
But Shadow Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell accused Britain of giving away a “key strategic military asset to a state which has never controlled it, and to which the Chagossian people feel little affinity, if any” amid intense geopolitical instability.
Transfer of the islands “gives succour to our enemies … and undermines the strategic web of Britain’s defense interests,” he argued.
