Trump Rips UK Over Chagos Islands Deal He Previously Backed

President Trump has called the UK’s decision to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius—an agreement his administration previously supported—an act of “great stupidity” that he said further justified his desire for the United States to acquire Greenland, Haley Ott reported for CBS News.

The Chagos Islands were separated from Mauritius, then a British colony, in 1965. (Photo: Library of Congress / 2.0 Generic, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en.) 

One of the islands, Diego Garcia, hosts a key UK–US military base in the Indian Ocean. Trump issued his remarks as US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, was visiting the UK to address the British Parliament.

Johnson told lawmakers that the US and UK had “always been able to work through our differences calmly as friends.”

The Chagos Islands were separated from Mauritius, then a British colony, in 1965. The UK purchased the islands for $4 million, according to BBC News. Mauritius has long argued it was forced to cede the territory as a condition for gaining independence in 1968.

The UK later invited the US to build a military base on Diego Garcia, which has since become a cornerstone of American defense infrastructure in the Indian Ocean.

British politicians condemned Trump’s remarks, accusing him of bullying the UK and meddling in its sovereignty.

In 2019, the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding ruling calling on the UK to relinquish control of the Chagos Islands, saying Britain had unlawfully displaced residents to make way for the military base.

That ruling helped pave the way for the 2024 agreement under which the UK agreed to transfer sovereignty to Mauritius while retaining control of the Diego Garcia base under a 99-year lease, costing Britain about $136 million annually.

Trump had previously supported the deal. In May last year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that “following a comprehensive interagency review, the Trump administration determined that this agreement secures the long-term, stable, and effective operation of the joint US–UK military facility at Diego Garcia.”