CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY (Grant Newsham) - Don’t trust U.K. on Diego Garcia
Originally published by Washington Times
Trump should not let Starmer hand U.S. base to Mauritius President Trump is a real estate man. He knows when he is being played, and the British are playing him over some important Indian Ocean real estate. The U.S. operates a critical military base on Diego Garcia, an atoll in the Chagos Archipelago, under a 1966 agreement with Britain that remains in effect until 2036. Diego Garcia is America’s only military base in the Indian Ocean. It’s akin to what U.S. bases in Hawaii are for operations in the Pacific. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor government is ramming through a separate treaty that hands Chagos to Mauritius, a country 1,200 miles away with no ties to Chagos or the Chagossian people, most of whom oppose the…Open