British court suspends transfer of island with strategic airbase to Mauritius

The UK Supreme Court has suspended the government’s decision to transfer the Chagos Archipelago, home to a US airbase, to Mauritius.

The UK Defence Journal reported on this.

It is noted that the decision was made just hours before the final signing of the agreement on the transfer of the archipelago.

The agreement, estimated to be worth £9 billion, has been increasingly criticized for excluding the indigenous population, the Chagossians, from the negotiation process, as well as concerns about its impact on UK national security.

The largest island in the archipelago, Diego Garcia, is home to a strategically important joint British-US military base, a key element of the Western military presence in the Indian Ocean.

The lawsuit alleges that the agreement violates the rights of displaced Chagos Islanders who have been fighting for decades to return to their homeland.

Critics also question the security implications of transferring sovereignty over a region that is home to one of the world’s most important military facilities.

It was from this airbase that American bombers flew combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Under the terms of the agreement, the UK will lease the atoll from Mauritius for at least 99 years, allowing the United States to maintain its military presence there.

The leaders of the UK and Mauritius assure that if the agreement is implemented, the base will continue to operate in a stable, secure, and efficient manner.

The start of the process of transferring the archipelago was announced back in October 2024.

The Chagos Archipelago was separated from Mauritius in 1965, when Mauritius was still a British colony. Britain bought it for £3 million and declared it its territory in the Indian Ocean.

Mauritius accused Britain of illegal colonial occupation of the archipelago, claiming that it had been illegally forced to renounce its rights to the Chagos Islands in exchange for independence.