"United States President Donald Trump appears to have endorsed the deal struck by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to hand over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, weeks after calling it a great stupidity. Trump had last month described the United Kingdom's decision to cede sovereignty of the Indian Ocean archipelago, which includes a joint US-UK military base on the island of Diego Garcia, as an act of great stupidity."
"The US president said he held productive talks with Starmer on Thursday and that the UK leader had made the best deal he could make. But he also warned in a post on Truth Social that the US would retain the right to militarily secure and reinforce the US presence on the island of Diego Garcia if it were threatened."
"Under a deal agreed last May, the governments of the UK and Mauritius jointly announced that full sovereignty of the Chagos, a remote group of more than 60 islands, would again belong to Mauritius in exchange for guarantees that the US military base could continue operating there for the next 99 years. Last year's announcement stirred a range of emotions among the Chagossians, who were forced from their island home in the 1960s and 1970s and resettled in Mauritius, the Seychelles and the UK."
Donald Trump indicated support for Keir Starmer's agreement to transfer full sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while asserting US security interests. He said he held productive talks with Starmer and that the UK leader made the best deal he could, but warned that the United States would retain the right to militarily secure and reinforce the US presence on Diego Garcia if it were threatened. The UK and Mauritius agreed last May that sovereignty would return to Mauritius in exchange for guarantees that the US base could continue operating there for the next 99 years. Chagossians were forcibly evicted in the 1960s and 1970s and continue campaigning to return to their ancestral lands.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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