Chagos deal paused over Trump opposition, minister confirms

The Chagos Islands deal has been paused indefinitely because of US President Donald Trump pulling his support, foreign minister Stephen Doughty has confirmed.

The agreement would have seen the UK cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius and pay an average of £101m ($136m) per year to lease back a joint UK-US military base on the archipelago's largest island, Diego Garcia.

Trump had expressed support for the treaty before urging the prime minister to scrap it, labelling it an "act of total weakness" in January.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Doughty repeatedly pointed the finger of blame at Trump, at times sounding frustrated, as he confirmed legislation would not progress during this parliamentary session.

Earlier on Monday, the prime minister's official spokesman would not commit to bringing back legislation to complete the process in the next session, due to begin on 13 May.

Doughty told MPs an update to the agreement allowing joint UK-US operation of the Diego Garcia military base had become "impossible to agree at political level" between the two countries.

That is despite the treaty with Mauritius having been "negotiated in close co-ordination with the United States under both this and the previous United States administrations", and one Trump had previously described as "very strong and powerful".

Doughty said: "In recent weeks, the position of the United States president appears to have changed.

"And this means that, in practical terms, it has become impossible to agree at political level an update to the 1966 UK-US agreement concerning the Availability for Defence Purposes of the British Indian Ocean Territory, known as the Exchange of Notes."

He added: "It's regrettable to us that obviously there has been a delay, we've run out of time in this parliamentary session, but the facts have not changed the need for this treaty, or indeed the need for the different processes and legal provisions to be brought in place."

Updating the Exchange of Notes is "necessary in order to ratify the treaty", Doughty told MPs.

The UK and Mauritius signed an agreement in May last year and the Bill to wind up London's control over the islands, but a final draft of this session's Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill is yet to be agreed by both the Commons and Lords.

With the deal as yet unratified, no payments have been made or will be made during the period of delay, the minister confirmed to Conservative former minister Dame Harriett Baldwin.

"I can confirm that in relation to the costs associated with this treaty, they cannot be paid without the treaty being passed, without the relevant legislation being passed," he said.

Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel called on Doughty to confirm the government would not try to push a deal through without Trump's support.

She asked: "Will he rule out any new legislation coming forward next session, even if it isn't in the King's Speech, so that the surrender treaty cannot become operable?"

Doughty responded by saying the Conservatives had "started this process" but did not directly say whether a fresh Bill would emerge.

Asked earlier whether the government would reintroduce the Bill, the prime minister's spokesman said: "I'm not going to get ahead of or speculate on what is in the King's speech, and any legislation will be announced in the usual way."

Parliament has already agreed to "carry over" five Bills from the current session, meaning debate on them can continue after May 13, but the Chagos Bill is not among them.

The spokesman added that UK officials would "now discuss next steps with the US and the Mauritians".

Under the terms of the deal agreed last year, Britain would hand sovereignty over the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius but lease back the Diego Garcia base for 99 years, with official figures giving the total as £3.4 billion.

However, opponents of the deal said the real cost could amount to about £35 billion, adjusting for inflation, and risked allowing China to establish a presence on the archipelago.