America’s concern about the consequences of Britain’s decision to cede the Chagos Islands

According to Isna, the British Prime Minister Kerr Starmer’s government from the Labor Party officially announced on Thursday that it will transfer the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to the Mauritius Islands, a former colony of London. The decision ended decades of dispute and negotiation over the status of this last British African colony. London announced that in exchange for handing over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, a joint military base between London and Washington will be maintained on the largest island of the archipelago, Diego Garcia Island, for 99 years.

Although US government officials welcomed the agreement between England and Mauritius on the handing over of the Chagos Islands, the English publication “Times” quoted sources as saying that Americans expressed concern about the security consequences of this event in private circles.

According to the Times, this agreement has also been opposed by several British officials, and they are worried that Beijing could establish spying and eavesdropping facilities on these islands. A British Cabinet source told The Times that it would be a risky move given that Britain is “practically in a Cold War with China”.

The Times newspaper wrote, these concerns are based on the fact that Mauritius authorities may decide to lease some of these islands to China. American and British officials point out that trade between the two countries is growing, and China has implemented nearly 47 financial and development initiative projects in the country.

The Chagos Islands have been under British rule since 1814. The Mauritian government has long argued that it was illegally pressured to cede the islands in exchange for independence from Britain. The recent agreement between the two sides was reached after 13 rounds of negotiations that were implemented since 2022 after the International Court of Justice and the United Nations General Assembly approved the claim of Mauritius to obtain the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands.

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