Comment on Trump says UK handing over Chagos Islands sovereignty is act of 'great stupidity'

tetris11@feddit.uk ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

• stsquad@lemmy.ml ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I believe the stated reason was to avoid the possibility of the court ruling against the UK owning the islands leading to the base needing to be shut down. The agreement with Mauritius includes a 99 year lease to secure the base at Diego Garcia.

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  • tetris11@feddit.uk ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    ah so base-loss mitigation, thanks

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• CricketGreen@feddit.uk ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  An international court put forward an opinion stating that the £3million pound purchase of the Chagos Islands was illegal, as the UK made it a condition on granting Mauritius independence.

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• FishFace@piefed.social ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I looked into this (just on Wikipedia). Before granting Mauritius independence, the UK split the territory into Mauritius and the British Indian Ocean Territory in order to have a place to put the base that’s there now. But the UN takes a dim view on such shenanigans and tends to say that such territories should be reconstituted. (See also: controversy over the Partition of India, which was less brazenly self-interested, but very consequential)

  So I believe the UN had actually already decided it was no bueno. I don’t know why Mauritius was granted independence though; it was uninhabited when settled by the french, then ceded to Britain after the defeat of Napoleon. I assume expense had something to do with it though, since in the mid 20th centuries many colonies were money pits.

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