Updated
Updated · Reuters · Jun 8
Mauritius Denies Any US Chagos Proposal as Britain’s $135 Million-a-Year Deal Stays Frozen
Updated
Updated · Reuters · Jun 8

Mauritius Denies Any US Chagos Proposal as Britain’s $135 Million-a-Year Deal Stays Frozen

3 articles · Updated · Reuters · Jun 8

Summary

  • Mauritius said June 8 it has received no official U.S. proposal on the Chagos Islands or Diego Garcia, rejecting a Telegraph report that the Trump White House was weighing a purchase plan.
  • The government said it had not been approached directly or indirectly by Washington and repeated that Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos archipelago is non-negotiable.
  • The reported U.S. option was framed as an alternative to Britain’s plan to transfer sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius while paying 101 million pounds, or about $135 million, a year to keep the Diego Garcia base.
  • Britain paused that deal in April after criticism from President Donald Trump, who said in February that the agreement was a “big mistake.”

Insights

Is the US trying to buy the Chagos Islands, turning a sovereignty dispute into a real estate deal?
With their right to return legally won, can Chagossians reclaim their homeland from competing superpowers?