Where are the Chagos Islands, why is Britain giving up sovereignty and what happens to the Diego Garcia military base?
The US military base on Diego Garcia will stay open despite Britain handing over sovereignty .
Britain has announced it will hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending more than half a century of direct control over the islands.
The move has been criticised by some Indigenous groups, while Britain's Conservative opposition said the decision to cede control could open the door to increased Chinese influence in the region.
Where are the Chagos Islands?
The Chagos Islands, also known as the Chagos Archipelago and the British Indian Ocean Territory, is an isolated atoll of tiny islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean, between Africa and Western Australia.
The chain includes the Salomon Islands, Peros Banhos, Nelson's Island, Three Brothers Islands, Eagle Islands, Danger Island, the Egmont Islands and Diego Garcia, a strategically important US military base.
The islands first came under British control in 1814, after being captured from the French following the defeat of Napoleon.
The current Indigenous population of the islands are largely descended from enslaved people brought by the French from Africa to work on coconut plantations.
The Chagos Islands officially became British territory in 1965, when Mauritius itself gained independence from Britain.
The Mauritius government has continually argued it was illegally forced to give up its claim to the Chagos Islands as part of the deal to get independence from the British.
Why is Britain giving up control of the islands?
Britain said the islands were being given to Mauritius as part of a deal to keep the Diego Garcia military base open for the next 99 years.
Diego Garcia is the largest island of the Chagos cluster and is also located on major international trade routes.
The Diego Garcia military base has been used to launch long-range bombing missions.
The base's location allows the US military to quickly access parts of Asia and Africa, and it was used to launch long-range bombing missions during the Gulf War and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The establishment of the base caused controversy because it involved the forced displacement of thousands of local islanders in the 1960s and 70s.
Many Chagossians now live in Mauritius, Seychelles and the UK.
What has been the reaction to the deal?
The deal, which took years of negotiations, will allow the diaspora to return to the islands, but not to Diego Garcia, where most of the original population lived.
But the deal has had a mixed reception from the Chagossian community.
In a statement earlier this week, the UK-based diaspora group Chagossian Voices said the community had been excluded from negotiations.
Exiled Chagossians have been fighting for the right to return for decades.
A spokesperson said the Chagossians had been "consistently and deliberately ignored" and demanded "full inclusion in the drafting of the treaty".
In the UK, Conservative shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat said the deal undermined Britain's allies and opened the possibility of China gaining a military foothold in the Indian Ocean.
However, Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the deal secured the vital military base for the future.
"Today's agreement... will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security," he said.
"As well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner."
US President Joe Biden said the deal would contribute to "peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes".
What happens next?
The new agreement means Mauritius will be free to implement a program of resettlement on the islands other than Diego Garcia, with the terms left for the government in Port Louis to decide.
"We were guided by our conviction to complete the decolonisation of our republic," Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said in a televised speech.
Chagos Refugee Group chair Oliver Bancoult told Britain's The Guardian newspaper it was not clear how many Chagossians would actually return to the islands, many of which are deemed uninhabitable.
David Blagden, an associate professor of international security and strategy at the UK's University of Exeter, said the decision was a positive for Mauritius.
"Not only will the UK pay Port Louis for 'taking back' an archipelago it'd never held sovereignty over, but they'll now be able to extract lots of juicy Chinese aid in exchange for complicating US/UK use of Diego Garcia," he said.
ABC/Reuters
By：https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-04/uk-government-hands-chagos-islands-to-mauritius/104432152(责任编辑：admin)
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