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Britain will wait for Donald Trump’s blessing before finalizing a deal with Mauritius over the future of a strategic Anglo-American military base in the Indian Ocean, according to sources close to the negotiations.
The British government has been optimistic in recent weeks that it will reach an agreement with Mauritius on the Chagos Islands before the president-elect is sworn in on January 20.
On Sunday, British officials said “good progress” had been made in negotiations after London offered to advance a tranche of payments to Port Louis for the proposed 99-year lease of Diego Garcia, the largest atoll of the archipelago and sheltering most of the island. defense base.
The Mauritian government will hold a special Cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss, and potentially approve, the latest proposals.
However, Britain is no longer pushing for the deal to be formally announced before the US inauguration, unless the deal has won explicit approval from the new administration, the sources said.
As different time scenarios remain in play, confidence among British government officials that the deal can be completed before next Monday has faded.
A senior British Foreign Office official is in Washington this week for talks on the matter with representatives of outgoing President Joe Biden’s team and incoming Trump’s team, according to people familiar with the matter.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, was critical of the plan last fall, citing concerns that it could strengthen Chinese interests in the Indian Ocean.
Mike Waltz, Trump’s new national security adviser, has also raised concerns in the past and is monitoring the issue closely. In 2022, it warned negotiations could jeopardize the Diego Garcia naval facility.
However, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told MPs in November that US officials from the White House, Pentagon, Ministry of Defense and intelligence agencies had backed the proposal, indicating it was convinced that Trump and his allies would also provide support after seeing the details.
Trump has not publicly commented on the proposed deal and did not address it during his phone call with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in late December.
Senior British government figures have long privately argued that the United Kingdom was not trying to convince the United States to support the deal, which concerns the future of the Diego Garcia joint military base, used by bombers at long range and American warships.
The UK had to return to the negotiating table after Mauritius leader Pravind Jugnauth, with whom a first deal was reached last October, was ousted from office in a landslide general election.
His successor, current Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, said the new administration wanted to review the terms of the agreement, which had not been ratified by treaty.
Satyajit Boolell, a former director of the Mauritian public prosecutor’s office close to the administration, said Britain’s mistake had been to enter into negotiations with a government on the verge of withdrawal.
“The new government needs to improve the deal,” Boolell said, saying he wanted both a shorter lease and more money. Once Britain recognized its “illegal occupation” of Chagos, he declared that it was justified for Mauritius to negotiate directly with Washington over the terms of Diego Garcia’s lease.
“Negotiations should take place between Mauritius and the United States. They occupy Diego Garcia, over which we have sovereignty,” he said.
While the last Conservative administration opened negotiations with Mauritius in 2022, after a UN tribunal ruled that the UK did not have sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, the Conservative Party has been highly critical of with regard to the agreement proposed in recent months.
Priti Patel, the Conservative shadow foreign secretary, on Tuesday accused Starmer of “giving up sovereignty over the Chagos Islands”, calling the deal “the most shameful failure of British diplomacy this century”.
The Foreign Office said last week: “We believe it is important to progress the deal quickly, but we have never set an exact date.” He added: “We will only finalize a deal that is in the UK’s national interest and respects our red lines and those of the United States. »
