Donald Trump has appeared to back the UK’s Chagos Island deal
Donald Trump has appeared to back the UK’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after holding ‘very productive’ discussions with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The US President described the proposed agreement as the ‘best’ Starmer could make, seemingly signaling a change in support after criticising it last month.
The deal would transfer sovereignty of the Indian Ocean islands to Mauritius, while maintaining control of the US-UK Diego Garcia military base on a lease agreement for 99 years at a cost of $47 (£35) million.
‘I have had very productive discussions with Prime Minister Keir Starmer about the Island of Diego Garcia,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday.
‘I understand that the deal Prime Minister Starmer has made, according to many, the best he could make,’ he added, before warning the US could ‘militarily secure’ the base if the lease agreement ‘ever falls apart’.
Mr Trump tore into the deal just a few weeks ago, warning it was an ‘act of great stupidity’, an ‘act of total weakness’ and claimed the site of the Diego Garcia base was being given away ‘for no reason whatsoever’.
The President had argued that giving away the islands was an act of surrender and warned the territory could fall into the hands of China, an ally of Mauritius. Similar concerns have also been raised by the Conservatives and Reform who remain opposed to the deal.
Mr. Trump’s criticism came as transatlantic tensions flared over his ambitions to take control of Greenland, with Starmer accusing the US of changing stance as a pressure tactic in Trump’s bid to seize the Arctic island from Nato ally Denmark.
he White House has since retreated from threats over the Arctic island, after a backlash from other Western powers.
Starmer had appeared to avoid raising the issue directly with Trump until a phone call at the beginning of this week.
A Downing Street readout of that call showed the PM and President agreed to ‘continue working closely’ to secure the future of the Diego Garcia base.
Earlier this week, UK sources suggested the US President was close to back the agreement, but warned it was not a ‘done deal’.
Downing Street has insisted the case for the Chagos Islands deal is ‘crystal clear’ after Lord Mandelson claimed there had been a ‘wobble’ over it within the Government.
The former US ambassador, who was forced to resign in September over links to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, revealed the private concerns in an interview with the Times.
He said he ‘became aware of a serious wobble in London over the agreement and its sell-ability to the British public’.
‘That was to do with the price tag and whether we had the total legal obligation to enter the deal and whether the original legal case made for the agreement in Whitehall was as watertight as was claimed,’ the peer said.
‘So on the one hand I faced a skeptical US administration and then at another point a wobbly government of my own behind me.’
Following Mandelson’s comments, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman insisted there was no concern over the legal necessity for the deal.
He said: ‘We’ve been crystal clear about the importance of this deal and we inherited a situation where the effective operation of the military base was under threat.
‘Claims that we negotiated this deal solely because of the 2019 ICJ (International Court of Justice) advisory opinion are simply wrong.
‘That wasn’t the only challenge we faced.
‘Without a deal, Mauritius would inevitably pursue a legally binding judgment, and that judgment would then be applied by countries and international organisations alike.
‘And without a deal, we’d face serious, real-world operational impacts on the base.’
Asked about the ‘wobble’, the spokesman said: ‘There was a change of governments in both the US and Mauritius in November 2024.
‘It’s only right that both new administrations would want to understand the details of the deal, and the deal has subsequently undergone an extremely high level of scrutiny, both through the parliamentary process and through two US administrations.’
The spokesman added: ‘We continue to work with the US at every level but our position remains unchanged.’
Credit: Ross Ibbetson, James Tapsfield, msn.com