Does the Chagos Islands deal threaten UK-US security ties?
The UK signed an agreement in 2025 to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while leasing back the Diego Garcia military base for 99 years at an average cost of £101 million annually. The joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia supports operations across the Indian Ocean, Middle East and beyond. As of September 2026 the deal remains paused indefinitely after US President Donald Trump withdrew support and called it a terrible deal, prompting the UK to review it.
26 Opinions
The deal will inevitably happen eventually and is required by international law. Trump's posturing may delay it a bit, but that is all.
Is paying to give away a military base on territory you already have to a country busy sucking up to China bad for security? Tricky one. I might need a bit of a lie-down and a couple of whiskies.
Starmer, Lammy, Miliband, Hermer & co are liars. Mauritius has no claim on the Chagos Archipelago. Kill the bill.
Yes it threatens it but doesn’t mean it shouldn’t go ahead. Trump won’t be there in two years time. A different President may have a different view.
It's of strategic importance, starmer,Burnham,Trump all say .we own and run it with usa . Security is guaranteed by usa. Keep it
Sovereignty is better than not-sovereignty. We all know this without having to bring the US into it. The bigger problem is we didn't protect our interests until someone else told us to. So it's not only Chagos that isn't sovereign any more - it's us. We are a useless chattel state, looking for a strong Daddy to tell us what do do, be that the EU, the US, China or the fabrication of "international law". All we're arguing about is who is going to be our Daddy. The UK is over.
The UK is committed to a very long tenancy which removes any imminent threat of eviction. The US policy as delivered by its POTUS is wildly inconsistent and as such the UK government has to be guided by international law rather than possession is 9/10th of the law. Its uncomfortable for a former colonial power to surrender possessions but it has value to UK itself. Perhaps USA should buy it as was proposed for Greenland?
There is no conceivable upside for the Chagos deal. IT must be dropped.
Currently it seems to. But the US view has wavered wildly on this.
America is against it,so should we