The UK recently announced that it will begin negotiations with the Republic of Mauritius over the status of the Chagos Islands, with foreign secretary James Cleverly saying that he wanted to deal with “all outstanding issues” around them.
The decision comes after former prime minister Liz Truss held talks with Mauritian PM Pravind Jugnauth during her brief premiership. The two met in September at the UN General Assembly in New York.
The archipelago has been a British territory in the Indian Ocean since 1814, when France ceded Mauritius and its dependencies to the UK in the Treaty of Paris. Mauritius then became a self-governing British colony.
The UK later made plans with the US to establish a joint-military base on the island of Diego Garcia, the largest of the 60 islands which make up the archipelago.
After the base was established in 1966, the UK subsequently expelled over 1,000 native Chagossians from the islands to allow for the running and maintenance of the base and the accommodation of military personnel. Since then, natives have been unable to return.
During the run-up to Mauritian independence from the UK – achieved in 1968 – the United Kingdom designated the Chagos Islands as the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Following independence, Mauritius has claimed sovereignty over the islands and Chagossians have mounted legal challenges in a bid to secure their return.
After Mauritius took the matter to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for an advisory solution, the court ruled that British administration of the islands was “unlawful” in early 2021.
But until this point, the UK has until rebuffed calls to negotiate with Mauritius over the islands’ future.
The foreign secretary said in a ministerial statement confirming the change of direction that the UK and Mauritius had “agreed to engage in constructive negotiations, with a view to arriving at an agreement” by early 2023.
Cleverly continued: “Taking into account relevant legal proceedings, it is our intention to secure an agreement on the basis of international law to resolve all outstanding issues, including those relating to the former inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago.”
The foreign secretary confirmed that the negotiations would include “the exercise of sovereignty” and reassured that effective continued operation of the joint military base would be guaranteed.
