The UK has offered to frontload payments to Mauritius in a bid to finalise the contentious Chagos Islands deal before Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Britain is offering to pay several years’ worth of the £90million annual lease payments upfront for Diego Garcia, the main island that hosts a crucial UK-US military base.
The move has come as officials race to conclude negotiations over the Indian Ocean archipelago’s sovereignty, with less than two weeks remaining before the President-elect takes office.
Designed as a sweetener, the frontloaded payments have been suggested in the hope that it would help to secure agreement with Mauritius’s new administration, which has expressed concerns about the existing draft deal.
Designed as a sweetener, the frontloaded payments have been suggested in the hope that it would help to secure agreement with Mauritius’s new administration
PA
Although some details are classified due to its military relevance, the new proposal is a compromise between the Mauritian government’s push for an increased financial settlement and the UK’s stance on maintaining the overall cost of the 99-year lease.
The negotiations stumbled after Pravind Jugnauth, who agreed an initial draft deal with Starmer last October, lost power in a general election.
His successor, Navin Ramgoolam, declared the proposed agreement “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect” and reopened negotiations.
Sources close to the talks revealed that financial terms have been a key sticking point for Port Louis, alongside concerns about lease terms and the UK’s review rights.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Despite these challenges, UK officials remain optimistic about finalising the agreement before Trump’s inauguration in under two weeks.
The deal would maintain the £90million annual payment structure over the 99-year lease period, with the new frontloading arrangement designed to break the current impasse.
The deal has sparked significant domestic criticism from Conservative and Reform UK leaders, as Kemi Badenoch accused the PM of “taking the knee” in international negotiations and “giving things away for free”.
Meanwhile, Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has expressed deep criticism of the arrangement, warning it would face “outright hostility” from the incoming Republican administration.
These concerns have been echoed by some of Trump’s senior allies, including his pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio.
These concerns have been echoed by some of Trump’s senior allies, including his pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio
GETTY
Rubio has claimed the agreement could “provide an opportunity for communist China to gain valuable intelligence on our naval support facility”.
However, Foreign Secretary David Lammy has pushed back against these criticisms, telling MPs that officials across the US establishment have welcomed the deal, including the intelligence agencies, state department, Pentagon and White House.
British officials have privately expressed confidence that Trump and his Republican colleagues will ultimately back the deal once they review the complete details.
Starmer’s national security adviser Jonathan Powell, who leads on the negotiations for the UK, travelled to the US last month for direct talks with key members of Trump’s incoming administration.