“Diego Garcia was described to me by a senior Trump advisor as the most important island on the planet as far as America was concerned,” he said.
The Independent reported Wednesday that Trump’s transition team “has requested legal advice from the Pentagon over the agreement” and could seek to kill the deal amid national security concerns.
Responding to Farage for the government in the Commons, Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty stressed that negotiations on the handover were started under the previous Conservative government.
He said the deal showed Britain upholding the international rule of law, and said “robust security arrangements” had been built into the agreement “preventing the presence of foreign security forces on the outer islands.”
“We would not have signed off an agreement that compromised any of our security interests or those of our allies,” he added.
Other British figures are not so sure.
Eddie Lister, a former senior adviser to Boris Johnson as British prime minister, said of the agreement: “I think pressure will come on for us to backtrack on it. Don’t forget no legislation has been put through on it.”
He added: “The pressure will become enormous.”
