Military base in paradise: Why decolonization by the UK turns out to be fake again
The UK and Mauritius have signed an agreement to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. Under the terms of the deal, London will relinquish control of the archipelago – which hosts a joint US-UK military base on its territory – but will retain authority over its largest island, Diego Garcia, under a 99-year lease in exchange for financial assistance.
According to The Guardian, the administration of US President Donald Trump, which was consulted on the deal, has approved it.
'The strategic location of this base is of the utmost significance to Britain, from deploying aircraft to defeat terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan to anticipating threats in the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific,' UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced.
News of the UK's decision to return the strategically significant Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius first became known on October 3, 2024. The long-awaited decision came after years of negotiations with Mauritian officials, involving 13 rounds of discussions, and was made amid intense debates and international pressure.
Diego Garcia and the other islands of the archipelago were discovered by the famous Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1512 and remained uninhabited until the French began using the archipelago as a settlement for lepers and later, in the late 18th century, for coconut plantations worked by African slaves.
From 1715 to 1810, Chagos was part of the French overseas territories in the Indian Ocean, governed by the French colony of Isle de France which would later be renamed Mauritius. During the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), the British took control of these territories, and under the Paris Agreement of 1814, France ceded Isle de France along with the Chagos Archipelago to Britain.
The territory remained a British colony for over 150 years. In 1965, the UK promised to withdraw from Mauritius, but first it removed the Chagos Archipelago from the jurisdiction of Mauritius, paying the latter £3 million in compensation. Consequently, Mauritius gained independence in 1968 without Chagos, which was officially declared part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) on November 8, 1965.
In 1966, despite the UN's objections to British control over the archipelago, London leased Diego Garcia to the US for 50 years in exchange for a $14 million discount on the purchase of Polaris ballistic missile submarines. The island has an area of just about 27 sq km and the lagoon is surrounded by a narrow strip of surface coral reefs. It has the largest continuous atoll rim in the world – about 60km in length; the dryland rim has a maximum width of 2.4km, and at its highest point the island is 7 meters above sea level. With its coconut palms, it looks like paradise on earth.
At the time of the lease, in 1966, Diego Garcia had a population of fewer than 1,000 people, primarily contract workers tending to coconut plantations. However, by 1973, the residents of Diego Garcia, along with those from the entire Chagos Archipelago, were forcibly removed to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for the US military base. Since then, the Chagossians have been barred from returning home. Washington established a naval and air force base on Diego Garcia, jointly operated with the UK, housing around 4,000 American and British military personnel and civilians. In 2016, the US extended its lease for another 30 years.
In October 2024, the UK finally decided to transfer the Chagos Islands – its only overseas territory located in the Indian Ocean – back to Mauritius. The decision followed intense negotiations and disputes at both local and international levels.
It all started in the 1990s when several Chagossians, exiled from their islands and holding British citizenship, filed lawsuits to assert their right to return home but were unsuccessful. In the early 2000s, around 4,500 Chagossian descendants living in the UK, Mauritius, and the Seychelles sought compensation but also met with failure. Meanwhile, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq only solidified Diego Garcia's strategic importance as a launchpad for airstrikes carried out by the US and its allies.
In June 2017, the UN General Assembly passed resolution 71/292, requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice regarding the legality of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965. Based on the court's findings, which called for the complete decolonization of Mauritius, the General Assembly demanded the unconditional withdrawal of British troops from the archipelago.
London rejected the ruling, but a few years later, on November 3, 2022, under international pressure, it announced the resumption of negotiations with Mauritius, ultimately leading to a joint statement on the transfer of the Chagos Islands, including Diego Garcia, back to Mauritius.
The UK has fought to retain Diego Garcia, as the island plays a crucial military, strategic, and economic role in advancing its geopolitical interests in East Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian Ocean.
The joint US-UK military base, equipped with a runway, is used for positioning navy ships and long-range bombers. It is essential to American operations in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf and played an active role during Operation Desert Storm (1991), Operation Enduring Freedom (2001–2021), and other operations in the Middle East.
Utilizing the base is significantly cheaper than deploying expensive aircraft carriers at sea and allows for a quicker response to external threats. Situated at the heart of Indian Ocean shipping routes, it allows the US and UK to oversee the transit of energy resources and goods between Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, while also serving as a tool against maritime piracy and terrorism.
Geostrategically, Diego Garcia is vital for the US and UK in their global competition with China, which established its own base in Djibouti in 2017. China is expanding its influence through the ambitious 'One Belt One Road' initiative which the Seychelles, Madagascar, and Comoros are part of. Mauritius, which remains an ally of the West, has not yet joined this initiative.
Recent reports indicate that the US has deployed Northrop B-2 Spirit strategic bombers to Diego Garcia. The Wall Street Journal described the deployment as a warning to Iran and the Houthis, against whom Washington is conducting military operations in the Red Sea.
Six bombers, each valued at $1.1 billion, were sent to the region from the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. This is nearly a third of the US Air Force's fleet of flying wing aircraft. According to the Air Force Global Strike Command, the deployment is part of the Pentagon's efforts 'to deter, detect, and, if necessary, defeat strategic attacks against the United States and its allies.'
Given the current situation in the Middle East, there is speculation that the US might utilize the aircraft stationed at Diego Garcia for a potential nuclear strike on Iran. National Interest noted that by December 2024, the US had successfully completed a significant upgrade of the B61-12 nuclear warhead, which cost $9 billion. The modernized version is the latest iteration of the B61 since its introduction in 1968 at the height of the Cold War.
The recent enhancements effectively transform the 'dumb' gravity bomb into a precision weapon with a circular probable deviation of just 30 meters. The B61-12 is certified for use on F-15E, F-16, F-35A, B-2 Spirit, and NATO's Tornado aircraft.
Whether the B61-12 would specifically target alleged Iranian nuclear facilities remains uncertain. However, it is known that 'support for nuclear-capable military platforms is a key function of Diego Garcia,' according to a report from the Lowy Institute. The likelihood of B61-12 warheads being temporarily stationed at Diego Garcia is quite high. Additionally, Diego Garcia is not subject to the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty (Pelindaba Treaty).
Iran's response to the deployment of B-2 bombers at the Diego Garcia base has been quite firm. On March 29, The Telegraph, citing a senior Iranian military official, reported that Iran would not hesitate to strike the Diego Garcia joint US-British naval base in retaliation for any American attack on its territory.
'Iran possesses adequate weapons for such an attack from its mainland, such as newer versions of the Khorramshahr missile that have an intermediate range, and the Shahed-136B kamikaze drone with a range of 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles),' the article stated, referencing Iranian media.
Despite reaching an agreement to transfer the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius, residents of the islands have little hope of returning to Diego Garcia – the most habitable island of the archipelago – from which they were expelled by the British in the 1970s during the construction of the military base. Under the terms of the deal, access to the island remains prohibited.
This agreement has also stirred controversy regarding other overseas territories of the UK. On October 3, 2024, the same day the deal with Mauritius was announced, Argentina urged Britain to return the Falkland Islands.
'We will restore full sovereignty over our Malvinas Islands through concrete actions, not empty rhetoric. The Malvinas were, are, and always will be Argentine,' stated Argentina's foreign minister, Diana Mondino.
Argentine President Javier Milei has repeatedly emphasized the necessity of returning the Falkland Islands to Argentina. At the same time, discussions have emerged about Spain reclaiming Gibraltar. However, in early October 2024, the UK firmly stated that the sovereignty of both the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar is 'non-negotiable' and that the agreement with Mauritius should not be seen as a precedent for other territorial disputes, as the Chagos Islands represent 'a unique situation based on its unique history and circumstances.'
The situation with the Chagos Islands demonstrates the reluctance of Western powers to relinquish their colonial past, which allows them to maintain control over formerly dependent but currently sovereign nations. Losing control of the Chagos Islands would be too painful for the geostrategic ambitions of the UK and the US, which seek to uphold global hegemony at the expense of the interests of the native inhabitants of the formerly colonized states. Diego Garcia is a clear example of post-colonialism which is pulling the world back into an era of oppression, subjugation, and international inequality.
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