The British government said on Tuesday that a deal to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in 2025 secured the future of a key US-British military base on the Indian Ocean archipelago, after US President Donald Trump accused the UK of being “grossly stupid”.
Trump, who supported the deal when it was signed in May last year, said in a social media post on Tuesday that the UK would be “really foolish to give up vitally important land and another in a long line of national security reasons why Greenland must be acquired”.
Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on Britain and other European countries over his claim to Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory.
Under the Chagos agreement, Britain will hand over the archipelago about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Mauritius to its former colony and pay to lease U.S. and British military bases for a century.
Britain insists it will go ahead with the deal, which is in the final stages of parliamentary scrutiny, despite Trump’s U-turn.
A British government spokesman said “our position has not changed”, praising the deal’s “strong terms” and stressing that countries from Australia to Japan welcomed it.
“This agreement ensures the operation of the joint US-UK base on Diego Garcia for generations,” the spokesman added, referring to the largest island in the Chagos archipelago.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May that Washington “welcomes this historic agreement.”
“The Trump Administration has determined that this agreement ensures the long-term, stable and effective operation of the joint U.S.-British military installation on Diego Garcia,” Rubio said in a statement at the time.
British Foreign Secretary Stephen Doughty told parliament on Tuesday that Britain would have “discussions” with the United States in the coming days “to remind them of the advantages of this deal and how it secures the foundations.”
-“Significant contribution”-
After Mauritius gained independence from Britain in the 1960s, Britain continued to control the Chagos Archipelago.
But it expelled thousands of islanders, who have since launched a series of legal claims in British courts.
In 2019, after decades of legal battles, the International Court of Justice recommended that the UK hand over the islands to Mauritius.
The British government said challenges in international and domestic courts put the military base’s status “under threat”.
A British government spokesman insisted the base was “one of the most important contributions to the intelligence and security relationship between the UK and the US”.
“Nearly every operation at the base is conducted in partnership with the United States,” the spokesman added.
The base played an important strategic role in the Cold War, adjacent to Asia, and later served as a staging ground for U.S. bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Most recently during the Gaza war, it was used to launch B-2 bomber attacks against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
British opposition politicians have been critical of the deal, which would see the UK pay Mauritius 101 million pounds ($136 million) a year for 99 years.
The government said the net cost over the life of the lease would be about £3.4 billion, taking inflation into account.
“Unfortunately, President Trump is right on this issue,” said Opposition Conservative Leader Kemi Badenock.
“Thank God Trump vetoed the surrender of the Chagos Islands,” said Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right UK Reform party.
But Ed Davey, leader of the centrist Lib Dems, posted on X that Prime Minister Keir Starmer should start confronting the US leader.
“It shows that Starmer’s approach to Trump has failed,” he said. “The Chagos Seal was sold as evidence that the government could work with him. Now it’s falling apart. It’s time for the government to stand up to Trump — appeasing bullies never works.”
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