Mauritian foreign minister, UK special envoy react to Chagos Islands deal

The British government's agreement to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius addresses a "historic wrong," the Mauritian foreign minister said Thursday, referring to the displacement of more than a thousand islanders some 50 years ago.

Speaking on Sky News, Maneesh Gobin praised the deal as historic.

"It augurs well for the two sovereign nations signatory to today's joint political statement," he said.

As part of the deal, the U.K. will retain sovereignty of Diego Garcia, home to an important U.S.-U.K. military base, for an initial period of 99 years, and will pay Mauritius an undisclosed rent.

It will also create a “resettlement” fund for displaced Chagossians aimed at letting them move back to the islands other than Diego Garcia.

Jonathan Powell, UK Special Envoy for the Chagossian Islands, told Sky News in a separate interview that Mauritius would have control of the fund.

The Chagos Islands, which conjure up images of paradise with their lush vegetation and long stretches of white sandy beaches, have been at the heart of what Britain has called the British Indian Ocean Territory since 1965 when they were siphoned away from Mauritius, a former U.K. colony that gained independence three years later. Mauritius, which lies east of Madagascar in southern Africa, is around 2,100 kilometers (1,250 miles) southwest of the Chagos Islands.

Following a lease agreement with Britain, the U.S. built the naval base at Diego Garcia for defense purposes in the 1970s. The U.S. has described the base as “an all but indispensable platform” for security operations in the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa.

Around 1,500 inhabitants from the Chagos Islands were displaced to make way for the U.S. base, in what Human Rights Watch said last year amounted to “crimes against humanity committed by a colonial power against an indigenous people.”

In a statement, the White House said President Joe Biden applauded the “historic agreement” on the status of the Chagos Islands.