Chagos Islands deal ‘can’t go ahead’ without US support, Streeting says

Wes Streeting has said annual payments worth at least £120m to Mauritius are on hold as the government reconsiders its deal over the Chagos Islands, after Donald Trump refused to back the agreement.

The defence secretary said the payments would not be made “at this stage” and confirmed the deal “can’t go ahead without US support”.

Last year, the UK signed a treaty to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while retaining control of the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia under a 99-year lease. Mauritius was also set to receive £165m for three years and £120m a year from the fourth year.

Asked on BBC Radio 4 Today’s programme if the payments would still go ahead, Streeting said: “Not at this stage. We’ve got to get to a point where we can agree a deal … This deal as it is currently constituted can’t go ahead without American support. So we have to get a deal to a place where it commands American support as well as the agreement of the government of Mauritius and our government.

“And the reason why that is important is because we are trying to safeguard, not just now but for the longer term, the base at Diego Garcia, and the capability it provides the United Kingdom and the United States for our national and collective security.”

Streeting said the payments would be a “price worth paying” if they secured Britain’s long-term ability to operate from Diego Garcia.

Trump doubled down on his criticism of the agreement when he met Andy Burnham at the UN general assembly in New York on Tuesday, describing the deal to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as “terrible”. “I don’t support it,” Trump told reporters after a bilateral meeting with Burnham on the fringes of the general assembly adding: “I think it’s a terrible deal.”

After meeting Trump, the prime minister said the government would “work hard” to find a resolution that was acceptable to the different sides.

Streeting said Trump’s criticism had not come as a surprise to ministers. “This isn’t news to us,” he said, “President Trump has been clear that he has concerns about the deal as it’s currently constituted. We will work through the detail of the US concerns and seek to reach a point that all of us can sign up to.”

The agreement can’t proceed as it is without US support because of the importance of the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia, Streeting said.

The defence secretary also warned that Britain could not adopt an “ostrich strategy” of sticking its head in the sand and hoping the row over the Chagos Islands would go away, as he warned settling the dispute would involve “painstaking work”.

“The strategy is not to wait out President Trump. I think the approach will be to work with President Trump and his administration,” Streeting told Times Radio. “I’m not pretending that’s an easy position and that resolving this is not going to be difficult. It is difficult and necessarily painstaking work, but it is necessary.

“And the ostrich strategy of sticking our heads in the sand … , I would caution is not a wise strategy when it concerns one of the most sensitive national security assets we have anywhere in the world,” Streeting added.

He also warned ignoring that Mauritius’s claim to sovereignty posed its own risk to the military base’s future. He said the ruling from the international court of justice in 2019 is “advisory now, [but] there is a potential further course of legal action avenue open to the government of Mauritius”.