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British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has confirmed that U.S. President Donald J. Trump can veto the British government’s plans to hand the British Indian Ocean Territory, or Chagos Islands, to Mauritius. The islands include Diego Garcia, home to a strategic U.S. base, and the proposal to transfer sovereignty to China-aligned Mauritius has proved highly contentious.
“On a military level and an intelligence level, we’re very intertwined with the United States,” Lammy told the British media, noting there have been changes of government in both Mauritius and the U.S. since his government, led by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, was first struck in 2024. “If President Trump doesn’t like the deal, the deal will not go forward, and the reason for that is we have a shared military and intelligence interest with the United States, and of course they’ve got to be happy with the deal, or there is no deal,” he added.
The Chagos deal has proved highly contentious in Britain, with the far-left Labour government agreeing to transfer the islands to Mauritius in deference to a non-binding International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling. Britain would have paid Mauritius billions of pounds—not the other way around—to facilitate this transfer in exchange for a fragile 99-year lease for the Diego Garcia base. However, Mauritius could have rendered the base fairly redundant by leasing one of the other islands to China.
Moreover, the native Chagossians—relocated from their islands to make way for the base in the 1960s and ’70s—oppose the transfer to Mauritius, which is over 1,300 miles away, with little real connection to Chagos beyond the fact they were part of the same colony administratively under the British Empire.
The anti-British Empire Attorney General who negotiated the one-sided deal with Mauritius and the Mauritian negotiator are both friends and political supporters of Prime Minister Starmer, raising doubts about its incredibly disadvantageous terms.
Deferring to Trump on the question of the Chagos Islands will be a personal blow to Lammy, a black identitarian who has previously described the America First leader as a “neo-Nazi sympathizing sociopath” and “tyrant.”
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“If President Trump doesn’t like the deal, the deal will not go forward”
Foreign Secretary @DavidLammy suggests that Trump has a veto on the Chagos Island deal #Peston pic.twitter.com/EkvwHlHp3o
— Peston (@itvpeston) February 26, 2025
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British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has confirmed that U.S. President Donald J. Trump can veto the British government’s plans to hand the British Indian Ocean Territory, or Chagos Islands, to Mauritius. The islands include Diego Garcia, home to a strategic U.S. base, and the proposal to transfer sovereignty to China-aligned Mauritius has proved highly contentious.
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