The deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius “can’t go ahead without American support”, the Defence Secretary has said, after US President Donald Trump described the agreement as “terrible”.
Multimillion-pound payments to Mauritius are on hold while the Government reconsiders the plan to give up control over the Chagos Archipelago, Wes Streeting said.
The Cabinet minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that payments, worth at least £120 million a year, will not be made “at this stage”.
The UK Government signed a treaty in May last year to cede control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
It agreed to pay the island country £165 million a year in the first three years of the 99-year deal, dropping to £120 million annually from year four, in exchange for the continued operation of a joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.
Mr Trump described the islands as “a very important piece of real estate, militarily and strategically”, when he met Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Tuesday in New York.
Referring to the treaty, he told reporters at the United Nations General Assembly fringe meeting: “I don’t support it. I think it’s a terrible deal.”
After their meeting, Mr Burnham said the Government would “work hard” to find a “resolution between the different sides”.
Mr Streeting said on Wednesday: “This deal, as it is currently constituted, can’t go ahead without American support.
“We have to get a deal to a place where it commands American support as well as the agreement of the government of Mauritius and our Government.
“The reason why that is important is because we are trying to safeguard, not just now but for the longer term, the base at Diego Garcia and the capability it provides the United Kingdom and the United States for our national and collective security.”
Asked whether the yearly payment would go ahead, the Defence Secretary said: “Not at this stage.
“We’ve got to get to a point where we can agree a deal.”
Mr Streeting added that a financial agreement would be “a price worth paying” if it secured the UK’s long-term ability to use the military base.
Asked on BBC Breakfast whether the Government is reviewing the deal, Mr Streeting replied: “Yes, we have to, because the US doesn’t support it.
“What President Trump said yesterday wasn’t new but I think it does provide absolute clarity that his position on this Chagos deal as currently drafted is not changing.”
Mauritius’s claim to the Chagos Archipelago was backed by an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling in 2019.
Mr Streeting earlier told Times Radio that while the ICJ’s ruling was “advisory now, there is a potential further course of legal action avenue open to the government of Mauritius”.
He warned that further action is “too great a risk to carry on”, in case the UK and US had to give up their military presence on the islands.
He said the administration led by former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer “got to a point where they clearly believed they did have the support of all parties involved” before concerns were raised in Washington.
“I’m not pretending that’s an easy position and that resolving this is not going to be difficult,” Mr Streeting said.
“It is difficult and necessarily painstaking work, but it is necessary.”
He added: “The ostrich strategy of sticking our heads in the sand and hoping it (will) go away, I would caution, is not a wise strategy when it concerns one of the most sensitive national security assets we have anywhere in the world.”
On Sky News, deputy Conservative Party leader Alex Burghart said he hoped Mr Streeting would walk away from plans to give up control of the Chagos Islands completely.
He said: “It was a crazy idea, right? Just a crazy idea that these islands that have been British for a very, very long time should be given to Mauritius, who’ve never owned them, and that the British people should pay, I think, £35 billion for the privilege of doing so.
“Hopefully this whole thing is dead.”
Asked why the Conservatives began talks with Mauritius, Mr Burghart said his party in government at the time “strongly disagreed” with the ICJ’s judgment but the ruling “starts a diplomatic process”.
He said he thought “it was actually” a mistake to start talks in the first place.
James Cartlidge, the Conservative shadow defence secretary, said: “It shouldn’t have taken another intervention from the president for Andy Burnham to ‘review’ Labour’s Chagos surrender deal.
“If Burnham was really serious about our defence, he would know that this deal should be binned entirely.”
Mr Cartlidge said he wanted “every penny of Labour’s crazy Chagos deal” to fund the UK armed forces.
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