By Ginika Igboke
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Jan. 28 that discussions with the United States are continuing over an agreement to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, amid scrutiny from Washington and growing political debate at home.
Speaking to reporters while traveling in China, Starmer said the issue had been raised repeatedly with the White House in recent days and maintained that the Trump administration had already reviewed and supported the deal at the agency level.
His comments came four days after he spoke by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump on Jan. 24. A Downing Street readout of that call did not reference the Chagos Islands. Separately, a Downing Street spokesperson said the UK and the United States were “continuing to work together” to ensure the long-term operation of the joint UK–U.S. naval and bomber base on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the archipelago.
Trump publicly criticized the UK’s decision earlier in the week, linking the transfer of sovereignty to broader U.S. national security concerns and condemning London’s handling of the Diego Garcia base in a post on Truth Social.
The UK agreed in May 2025 to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius following decades of legal and diplomatic pressure. The agreement, signed in October 2025 after years of negotiations, was finalized after consultations with Washington, according to the UK government. Under its terms, the Diego Garcia military base would remain under UK control for at least 99 years, preserving continued access for U.S. forces. The base is regarded by Washington as a critical hub for operations across the Middle East, East Africa, and the Indo-Pacific.
Exchanges With Washington
Asked whether the Chagos Islands were discussed during his recent call with Trump, Starmer said the matter had been raised multiple times with U.S. officials.
“I’ve obviously discussed Chagos with Donald Trump a number of times,” he said. “It has been raised with the White House at the tail end of last week, over the weekend, and into the early part of this week.”
Starmer said the UK paused the process after Trump returned to office to allow the new administration time to review the agreement.
“When the Trump administration came in, we paused for three months to give them time to consider the Chagos deal, which they did at agency level,” he said. “Once they’d done that, they were very clear that they supported the deal.”
He pointed to statements made in May 2025 by then–U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Hegseth said the agreement secured “key U.S. national security interests in the region,” while Rubio said Trump had expressed his support during a meeting with Starmer at the White House.
Pressed on whether Trump fully understood the agreement, Starmer declined to comment directly, reiterating that the U.S. government conducted an agency-level review before backing the deal.
Tensions resurfaced last week when U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the UK was letting the United States down over the future of the Diego Garcia base.
The two countries, he said, had shared the base “for many, many years,” adding that Washington opposed turning it over to Mauritius. Bessent said Trump had made clear that the United States would not “outsource” its national or hemispheric security.
Political Backlash in the UK
Legislation to implement the Chagos treaty is now in the final stages of parliamentary scrutiny, a process known as “ping pong,” as amendments are exchanged between the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
During a Jan. 28 parliamentary debate, opposition Conservatives urged the government to abandon the treaty. Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel said the agreement was unraveling, calling it a “35 billion pound” surrender that conflicted with a 1966 UK–U.S. exchange of notes stating the islands “shall remain under United Kingdom sovereignty.”
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller also criticized the negotiations as “utterly shambolic” and called on the government to secure a clear assessment of the U.S. position before moving ahead.
Responding for the government, Foreign Office Minister Seema Malhotra rejected the opposition’s claims, saying the treaty protects British and allied interests and “guarantees full UK operational control of Diego Garcia for generations to come.” She added that opposition estimates of the deal’s cost were “wildly exaggerated” and said government figures had been independently verified.
Malhotra also said the UK is updating the UK–U.S. exchange of notes governing the base and has made “strong progress,” though she noted that whether any revised agreement would require formal ratification remains undecided.
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