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The UK has announced it is giving up sovereignty of a distant but strategically important clump of islands successful the Indian Ocean aft much than fractional a century.
The woody – reached aft years of negotiations - volition spot the UK manus implicit the Chagos Islands to Mauritius successful a historical move.
This includes the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia, utilized by the US authorities arsenic a subject basal for its navy ships and long-range bomber aircraft.
The announcement, made successful a associated connection by the British and Mauritian Prime Ministers connected Thursday, ends decades of often fractious negotiations betwixt the 2 countries implicit the islands.
The US-UK basal volition stay connected Diego Garcia – a cardinal origin enabling the woody to spell guardant astatine a clip of increasing geopolitical rivalries successful the portion betwixt Western countries, India, and China.
In caller years, the UK has faced rising diplomatic isolation implicit its assertion to what it refers to arsenic the British Indian Ocean Territory, with various United Nations bodies, including its apical tribunal and wide assembly, overwhelmingly siding with Mauritius and demanding the UK surrender what immoderate person called its "last colony successful Africa".
The authorities of Mauritius has agelong argued that it was illegally forced to springiness the Chagos Islands distant successful instrumentality for its ain independency from the UK successful 1968.
At the time, the British authorities had already negotiated a concealed woody with the US, agreeing to lease it the largest atoll, Diego Garcia, for usage arsenic a subject base.
Britain aboriginal apologised for forcibly removing much than 1,000 islanders from the full archipelago and promised to manus the islands to Mauritius erstwhile they were nary longer needed for strategical purposes.
But until precise recently, the UK insisted that Mauritius itself had nary morganatic assertion to the islands.
For decades, the tiny land federation of Mauritius struggled to triumph immoderate superior planetary enactment connected the issue.
A fistful of Chagos islanders, who’d been forced to wantonness their homes successful the precocious 1960s and aboriginal 70s, repeatedly took the British authorities to court.
But it was lone precocious that planetary sentiment began to shift.
For a start, African nations began to talk with 1 dependable connected the issue, pushing the UK hard connected the contented of decolonialisation.
Then Brexit near galore European nations reluctant to proceed backing the UK’s stance successful planetary forums.
The Mauritian authorities went connected the attack, accusing the UK authorities of verbal threats.
And the Mauritians began to wage an progressively blase run – astatine the UN, successful courts, and successful the media – adjacent landing and planting a emblem connected the archipelago without British authorisation.
The negotiations that brought astir Thursday's woody began years earlier Sir Keir Starmer became premier minister.
But the timing of this breakthrough reflects a increasing consciousness of urgency successful planetary affairs, not slightest regarding Ukraine, with the UK keen to region the Chagos contented arsenic an obstacle to winning much planetary support, peculiarly from African nations, with the imaginable of a 2nd Trump presidency looming.
The Chagos islanders themselves – immoderate successful Mauritius and the Seychelles, but others surviving successful Crawley – bash not talk with 1 dependable connected the destiny of their homeland.
Some are determined to instrumentality to unrecorded connected the isolated islands, immoderate are much focused connected their rights and presumption successful the UK, portion others reason that the Chagos archipelago’s presumption should not beryllium resolved by outsiders.
A backlash from immoderate voices successful the UK tin beryllium expected, adjacent though successive Conservative and Labour premier ministers person some been moving towards the aforesaid wide goal.
But determination tin beryllium nary doubting the historical value of this moment.
Half a period oregon much aft the UK relinquished power implicit astir each its immense planetary empire, it has yet agreed to manus implicit 1 of the precise past pieces. It has done truthful reluctantly, perhaps, but besides peacefully and legally.
The remaining British overseas territories are: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St Helena, Tristan da Cunha, Turks and Caicos Islands.
English (US)