The US will be present at talks over the future of the Chagos Islands, which has been the subject of a controversial deal between Mauritius and the UK, the Mauritian prime minister has said.
Last October, the UK announced it would hand over sovereignty of the islands, known officially as the British Indian Ocean Territory, to Mauritius but would maintain a 99-year lease over the UK-US military airbase on the largest island, Diego Garcia.
The deal was reached with former Mauritian leader Pravind Jugnauth, but Navin Ramgoolam, his replacement, has been very critical.
Progress has also been delayed to allow officials from incoming President Donald Trump’s team to look at the details of the deal.
The agreement struck in October – which had been greenlit by the Biden administration – includes the UK paying lease payments to Mauritius for the UK-US military airbase.
However, shortly after the deal was struck, Mauritius elected a new prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, who wanted to reopen negotiations.
In a statement on Instagram on Thursday, Prime Minister Ramgoolam’s office said he had accepted “the presence of a representative from the new administration in the United States of America in the negotiations so as to further strengthen the process”.
Ramgoolam also said this showed that he was open and willing “to find common ground”, adding that he was confident there would be a “positive resolution”.
He was quoted in the UK’s Telegraph newspaper as saying that the White House had requested that it had someone at the talks.
Earlier this month, Ramgoolam told Mauritian MPs that the previous deal had been poorly negotiated by the man he replaced, describing it as a “sell-out”.
He said that the payments the UK had agreed to make to Mauritius were not inflation proof and should involve a bigger up-front amount.
He also objected to a clause where the UK could unilaterally extend the lease on Diego Garcia for another 40 years.
It is unclear what the US stance on the deal is exactly, but last year, before he was in office, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it posed a “serious threat”, arguing it gives the islands to a country aligned with China. Mauritius has a trade agreement with China.
The UK took control of the Chagos Islands, from its then colony, Mauritius, in 1965 and went on to evict its population of more than 1,000 people to make way for the Diego Garcia base.
Mauritius, which won independence from the UK in 1968, has maintained the islands are its own, and the UN’s highest court has ruled, in an advisory opinion, that the UK’s administration of the territory is “unlawful”.
The Chagos islanders – some in Mauritius and the Seychelles, but others living in the UK – do not speak with one voice on the fate of their homeland.
Some have criticised the deal, saying they were not consulted in the negotiations.
