London (Parliament Politics Magzine) – Chagos Islands deal with Mauritius ‘completely the wrong thing’, says ex-PM Boris Johnson.
Surrendering the Chagos Islands to Mauritius was “completely the wrong thing to do”, ex-prime minister Boris Johnson has warned. His ex-colleague, shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell, has also condemned the move as “not a deal” that previous Conservative foreign secretaries would have hit.
The United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice, had previously judged the UK’s administration of the Indian Ocean region was “unlawful” and must end. London consented to hand over the Chagos Islands, also understood as the British Indian Ocean Territory, to Mauritius in a decision revealed, which is subject to a treaty.
Why does Boris Johnson oppose the Chagos Islands deal?
Former Tory prime minister Mr Johnson characterised the decision as “sheer political correctness”. He told GB News:
“Why are we doing this? Sheer political correctness, a desire to look like the good guys, the desire to look as if they were unbundling the last relics of our empire. It’s nonsense.
“It’s a bad idea in hard geopolitical terms because the (military) base in Diego Garcia is, I’m sure you know … of huge strategic importance for the US, for the West, and it’s a key component of the Anglo-American alliance. It’s one of the things we bring to the table and has been for decades, that base. Why are we trading away our sovereignty over Chagos? Completely the wrong thing to do.”
As part of the arrangement, the UK and US will maintain a military company on Diego Garcia for 99 years, with an alternative to renew.