UK changes age old Chagos stance; discussion with Mauritius to start

United Kingdom recently declared its stance change regarding Chagos Archipelago colonization.

The European giant has failed in its efforts to maintain 'ownership' of the atolls, while International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared the archipelago fell under Mauritius' administration, and were legally a part of the country.

UK reportedly will be entering discussions with Mauritius to transfer administration back to the archipelagic nation in the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, Maldives had earlier declared its stance shift favoring Mauritius' ownership of the Chagos Archipelago. Despite this, Maldives reiterated its policy regarding the boundary demarcation issue with Mauritius did not change, and their support to its Indian Ocean neighbor over Chagos Islands was in no way a reflection of it.

Between 1967 and 1973, population of Chagos Islands were cleansed and moved to Mauritius and Seychelles to create a joint United States-United Kingdom military base on Diego Garcia.

Meanwhile, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in a statement confirmed the country was attempting to reach an agreement with Mauritius by early 2023. The statement further confirmed this decision reflects the talks held between the now former Prime Minister Liz Truss and Mauritius officials in October 2022.

UK has failed twice in their attempts at international tribunals to maintain its control over the islands. However, it refused to cede control of Chagos despite multiple judgements from international courts demanding UK revert ownership of the atolls to Mauritius, with the most recent of this being the ICJ advisory opinion in 2019. Moreover, UK's refusal to honor international courts played against them, with clear deterioration of its Indo-Pacific relationships.

ICJ already declared UK's control of Chagos Islands was in violation of international laws, and it must transfer the islands back to Mauritius to which the atolls belong.

United States, on the other hand, addressed concerns of losing its military base in Diego Garcia following a UK-Mauritius arrangement to revert ownership of Chagos Islands. The base, initially a joint operation between US-UK, has been leased out to the former by the latter while Mauritius affirmed US will maintain its control on the Diego Garcia base regardless of any administrative ownership changes of the atolls.

In 2021, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) declared Chagos belonged to Mauritius, adding that UK had no legal claim to the islands.