The UK is waiting for Donald Trump’s approval before signing the Chagos agreement

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Britain will wait for Donald Trump’s blessing before finalizing a deal with Mauritius on the future of a UK-US military base in the Indian Ocean, according to people familiar with the talks.

The UK government has been hoping to secure an agreement with Mauritius on the Chagos Islands in recent weeks before the president-elect is sworn in on January 20.

On Sunday, British officials said “good progress” had been made in talks after London offered to pay Port Louis for a 99-year lease on Diego Garcia, the island’s largest port and home to it was important. security agency.

The Government of Mauritius will hold a special meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday morning to discuss and agree on the latest proposals.

However, Britain is no longer pushing for an official announcement of the deal before the US inauguration unless the deal has received clear approval from the incoming administration, the people said.

While various timing conditions are at play, confidence has faded among British government figures that the deal will be secured before next Monday.

The UK’s top Foreign Office official is in Washington this week for talks on the issue with representatives of outgoing president Joe Biden’s team and incoming Trump team, according to people familiar with the situation.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, criticized the plan last fall, citing concerns that it could strengthen China’s interests in the Indian Ocean.

Mike Waltz, Trump’s incoming national security adviser, has also raised concerns in the past and has been following the issue closely. In 2022, he warned negotiations could endanger the Diego Garcia shipyard.

However, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told MPs in November that US officials in the White House, the Pentagon, the Defense Department and the intelligence agencies supported the proposal, pointing out that he hopes Trump and his allies will give their support after they see the facts.

Trump has not spoken publicly about the proposed deal and it did not appear during his phone call with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in late December.

British government figures have long argued privately that the UK was not trying to sway the US into backing the deal, which concerns the future of the joint military base in Diego Garcia, which is used by long-range aircraft. of US bombers and warships.

The UK was forced to return to the negotiating table after Mauritian leader Pravind Jugnauth, with whom an initial deal was agreed last October, was ousted in a botched general election.

His successor, the current prime minister of Mauritius Navin Ramgoolam, said the new administration wanted to review the terms of the agreement, which had not been ratified by the alliance.

Satyajit Boolell, a former Mauritian public prosecutor close to the administration, said Britain’s mistake was to open talks with a government that was on the way out.

“The new government has to improve the deal,” Boolell said, saying he wanted shorter leases and more money. Once Britain acknowledged the “illegal occupation” of the Chagos, he said there was a case for Mauritius to negotiate directly with Washington on the terms of the Diego Garcia lease.

“The dialogue should be between Mauritius and the US. They live in Diego Garcia over which we have sovereignty,” he said.

When the last Conservative administration opened talks with Mauritius in 2022, after the UN court ruled that the UK has no sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, the Tory party has been heavily critical of the deal. planned in recent months.

Priti Patel, the Tory shadow foreign secretary, on Tuesday accused Starmer of “giving up sovereignty over the Chagos Islands”, calling the deal “the most embarrassing failure of British diplomacy this century”.

The Foreign Office said last week: “We believe it is important to take the deal forward quickly but we have never set a specific date”. It added: “We will conclude a deal that is in the UK’s national interest and within US red lines.”