The Prime Minister found himself compelled to scrap his proposal to transfer control of the Chagos Islands due to an ‘openly hostile’ stance from Donald Trump, according to the former Head of the Diplomatic Service.
Lord Simon McDonald, who previously led the Foreign and Commonwealth Office when the UK was advised to return the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius, remarked that these plans are now effectively ‘on ice’.
The ex-diplomat cautioned that it might take decades to devise a solution for the islands, which remain under British control as the British Indian Ocean Territory, describing the situation as ‘a remnant from the Colonial era’.
His remarks coincided with statements from UK government officials indicating that while Starmer’s plan to return the islands and lease the area housing the strategic UK-US military base on Diego Garcia hasn’t been ‘completely shelved’, it’s at a standstill.
The contentious transfer, once slated to be part of the King’s Speech in May, faces indefinite delays due to insufficient time for legislation in this Parliament and a lack of support from the US.
Without US endorsement, the government’s strategy remains hindered. Initially, Donald Trump backed the agreement that would have seen the UK paying up to £101 million annually to lease Diego Garcia, but he withdrew support as diplomatic tensions with the UK escalated over Middle Eastern issues.
In January, he called the plan an ‘act of total weakness’.
‘The government had no other choice,’ Lord McDonald, who was in charge at the FCO between 2015 and 2020, told the BBC.
Lord Simon McDonald (pictured), who was in charge at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office when the UK was advised to hand back the Indian Ocean island archipelago to Mauritius, said the plans would now go ‘into the deep freeze’
The Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean. The controversial handover, which was expected to feature in the King’s Speech in May, has been delayed indefinitely because there is not enough time to bring forward legislation in this Parliament and the US has withdrawn its backing
‘The UK had two objectives. One was to comply with international law. The second was to reinforce the relationship with the United States but when the President of the United States is openly hostile the government has to rethink so this agreement will go into the deep freeze for the time being.’
Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme, the former senior civil servant said there were ‘choices over many decades’ to change the way the Chagos Islands were governed but that once the government submitted to the legal process of the International Courts of Justice (ICJ), it ‘was bound by the outcome of that process’.
In 2019, the ICJ recommended that Chagos should be handed back to Mauritius, triggering the current chain of events.
‘Everything that has happened now and also under the Conservative government as well as the Labour government is a consequence of that ICJ judgment,’ he said.
While agreeing there was a ‘mood to disregard international law’ and the judgment to hand back the islands could theoretically be ignored, he said:
‘This mood is being led by the United States and Russia and China have always been ambivalent but the US being equally ambivalent is noticed by everybody.
‘The UK has always defined itself as a country that respects and upholds international law and I think the government is correct to keep to that traditional policy.’
Lord McDonald said he expected there would be ‘no change’ to the islands while the Mauritians ‘were in no position to take them over by force or would even try because they are over 1200 nautical miles away with no navy to speak’.
Keir Starmer with Donald Trump in October last year. Sir Keir was forced to abandon his plans to secede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius have been abandoned in the face of an ‘openly hostile’ Donald Trump , the former Head of the Diplomatic Service said today
He said: ‘I think the status quo will persist.’
And he warned it could even take even longer than 50 years to sort out what would happen.
He explained: ‘This was an issue that was a hangover from the end of the Colonial era. For the last 200 plus years, successive powers that administered the Indian Ocean administered it as one unit so, at independence, the rules of decolonisation were that the whole unit should become independent as one new country.
‘The Brits – to help the US – carved out the Chagos archipelago to allow the Americans to build this absolutely vital base at Diego Garcia. The Mauritians were never happy about that. The whole process took more than half a century. It is going to take even longer to sort it out there.’
Lord McDonald, who sits in the Lords as a Life Peer and is also Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge, said he expected negotiations would now continue ‘in a low key way’ because ‘the President has already changed his mind more than once on this issue so it is possible he will change his mind again.
‘If he doesn’t then there will be a new president in 2029,’ he said.
To enact any Chagos bill, the UK, which has controlled the islands since the early 19th Century, requires a formal exchange of letters from the US as a legal necessity.
Any deal would then see the UK formally cede sovereignty and sign a lease for Diego Garcia to maintain the military base.
A government spokesperson said: ‘Diego Garcia is a key strategic military asset for both the UK and the US.
‘Ensuring its long-term operational security is and will continue to be our priority – it is the entire reason for the deal.
‘We continue to believe the agreement is the best way to protect the long-term future of the base, but we have always said we would only proceed with the deal if it has US support. We are continuing to engage with the US and Mauritius.’
