The Latest Breaking News from Diego Garcia

US president backs down over Labour prime minister’s plans to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, in a deal the government says is necessary to secure the future of the crucial UK-US Diego Garcia military base

The Prime Minister insisted his deal to hand over the islands to Mauritius had the US president’s blessing, despite his subsequent criticism.

A British civil servant of Indian origin, Dr. Francis Vijay Narasimhan Rangarajan, faces social media backlash over the controversial Chagos deal. He led negotiations to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius, retaining use of the Diego Garcia base. Critics, including former politicians, have voiced strong opposition to the…

Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said it is ‘absolute nonsense’ to present a 1966 UK-US agreement as a ‘gotcha’.

It came after the Government postponed a parliamentary debate on its Chagos Islands deal.

The UK formally agreed to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in May 2025. With the Trump administration’s explicit support, this move ended one of the longest-running territorial disputes in Britain’s remaining overseas territories.

Ministers say the deal is necessary because international court rulings on Mauritian sovereignty had threatened the future of the base.

Donald Trump launches fierce attack on Keir Starmer's Chagos Islands agreement, warning that handing Diego Garcia to Mauritius is 'total weakness' that endangers UK and NATO security while emboldening China and Russia.

Donald Trump has called the plan to transfer sovereignty ‘stupid’ and linked it to his own push to acquire Greenland

Sources have insisted the bill will return, although opponents have claimed it can’t move forward without US support

The US president said the UK's decision to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is among the reasons he wants to take control of Greenland.