The United Kingdom is pausing the planned secession of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius following a rebuke from the Trump administration.
Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer announced on Wednesday that the British government is “pausing for discussions with our American counterparts” after the United States expressed deep concern for the future of Diego Garcia — a joint military base on the archipelago’s largest island.
“There was support from the U.S. administration for this treaty, which has not changed,” Falconer said. “There clearly has been a statement from the president of the United States more recently from the president, which is very significant.”
“We are now discussing those concerns with the United States directly,” the minister continued. “We have a process going through Parliament in relation to the treaty.”
President Donald Trump has flip-flopped on the secession of Diego Garcia multiple times — at first firmly opposing the deal, then accepting the assertion that Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s hands were tied, then flipping again to demand the U.K. refuse to cede the islands.
“Prime Minister Starmer should not lose control, for any reason, of Diego Garcia, by entering a tenuous, at best, 100 Year Lease,” Trump said in his latest commentary on the deal, claiming the handover would prove to be a “blight on our Great Ally.”
The claim that the government is “pausing” the deal was later disputed in a report from the BBC, which cited a government source as saying that “there is no pause, we have never set a deadline and timings will be announced in the usual way.”
Starmer’s office said on Wednesday that the U.K. position has not changed but that they are awaiting “discussions with the US on next steps.”
PETER MANDELSON DENIES ‘BASELESS’ CLAIM OF FLEEING UK FOR BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage inserted himself into the debate over the future of Chagos on Wednesday, asserting that the neighboring Maldives boasts a parallel claim to the islands and is liable to countersue Mauritius for the territory.
“I wish to inform the government that we are just a few days away, in my opinion, from the Maldives issuing a counterclaim to the International Court of Justice to say, if anybody has the right to the sovereignty of those islands, it is the Maldives and not Mauritius,” Farage told Parliament. “I would urge you to pause all of this.”