Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny.
Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated.
The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier.
Photo: AFP
“I have asked for an independent review of the confidential draft agreement agreed so far,” Ramgoolam said. “I will keep the house informed of the next steps in the negotiations.”
When Mauritius became independent in the 1960s, London retained control of the Chagos Islands, and forcibly displaced up to 2,000 people in the 1970s to make way for the base.
The UK last month said it would hand over the islands, after years of sometimes acrimonious negotiations, but many of the exiled Chagossians said they were not involved in the negotiations and cannot endorse it.
Olivier Bancoult from the Chagos Refugees Group, which defends the rights of Chagossians, said he hoped the review would be done quickly.
“There is a need to correct injustice inflicted on the Chagossian population,” Bancoult said.
The UK has dismissed concerns the deal could collapse due to the desire of the new government in Mauritius to scrutinize the details.
However, it is unclear whether US president-elect Donald Trump would maintain US President Joe Biden’s support for the pact.
US Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for US secretary of state, has warned it poses “a serious threat” to US national security, while the UK is not expected to ratify the deal until after Trump’s inauguration in January, giving his administration the opportunity to re-examine the agreement if it wants.
Starmer described it as a “good deal” on Thursday. His spokesman told reporters that it’s “entirely understandable for a new administration to engage on the detail of the agreement” and while there is no discussion about renegotiating the deal, they are working with Mauritius to finalize the detail of the legal treaty.
Since securing victory on Nov. 12, Ramgoolam has held talks with local officials, external legal advisers and new UK National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell about the status of the negotiations with the UK, he told lawmakers in the capital, Port Louis, on Friday.
Details of talks that have taken place over the past two years are “unknown” to the new government, he said.
The meetings between Powell and the new administration have been “productive” and letters exchanged between Starmer and Ramgoolam have indicated he’s open to progressing the agreement, Starmer’s spokesman said on Thursday. Powell is planning to also travel to the US to discuss the agreement.
When Mauritius became independent in the 1960s, London retained control of the Chagos Islands, and forcibly displaced up to 2,000 people in the 1970s to make way for the base.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of