The UK is waiting for Donald Trump’s approval before signing the Chagos deal

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Britain will wait for Donald Trump’s blessing before finalizing an agreement with Mauritius over the future of the strategic British-American military base in the Indian Ocean, according to people familiar with the talks.

The UK government has been optimistic in recent weeks about reaching an agreement with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands before the president-elect is sworn in on January 20.

British officials said on Sunday that “good progress” had been made in negotiations after London offered to make a tranche of advance payments to Port Louis for the proposed 99-year lease of Diego Garcia, the archipelago’s largest atoll and home to the vital atoll. Defense base.

The Mauritian government will host a special Cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss and possibly approve the latest proposals.

However, Britain is no longer pushing for a formal announcement of the agreement before the US inauguration unless the agreement receives explicit approval from the incoming administration, the sources said.

While different timing scenarios remain in place, confidence has faded among British government figures that the deal will be secured before next Monday.

A senior British Foreign Office official is in Washington this week for talks on the issue with representatives of both outgoing President Joe Biden’s team and incoming Trump’s team, according to people familiar with the situation.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, criticized the plan last fall, citing concerns that it might advance Chinese interests in the Indian Ocean.

Mike Waltz, Trump’s incoming national security adviser, has also raised concerns in the past and has been following the issue with interest. In 2022, it is to caution The negotiations could put the Diego Garcia offshore facility at risk.

However, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told MPs in November that US officials from the White House, Pentagon, Department of Defense and intelligence agencies supported the proposal, signaling his confidence that Trump and his allies would throw their support behind it after seeing the first move. details.

Trump has not commented publicly on the proposed deal and it was not brought up during his phone call with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in late December.

British government figures privately have long argued that the UK was not trying to convince the US to support the deal, which concerns the future of the joint military base at Diego Garcia, which is used by US long-range bomber aircraft and warships.

The UK was forced to return to the negotiating table after Mauritian leader Pravind Jugnauth, with whom a preliminary agreement was agreed last October, was ousted from office in a landslide general election.

His successor, current Mauritius Prime Minister Naveen Ramgoolam, said the new administration wants to review the terms of the agreement, which has not been ratified by treaty.

Satyajit Polel, a former director of public prosecutions in Mauritius who is close to the administration, said Britain’s mistake was starting negotiations with a government that was on its way out.

“The new government has to sweeten the deal,” Bollel said, saying it wanted a shorter lease and more money. Once Britain acknowledged its “illegal occupation” of the Chagos Islands, he said there was justification for Mauritius to negotiate directly with Washington over the terms of Diego Garcia’s lease.

“The negotiations should be between Mauritius and the United States. They are occupying Diego Garcia, which we have sovereignty over.”

While the last Conservative administration opened negotiations with Mauritius in 2022, after a UN court ruled that the UK had no sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, the Conservative Party has strongly criticized the proposed deal in recent months.

Priti Patel, the Conservative shadow foreign secretary, on Tuesday accused Starmer of “ceding sovereignty over the Chagos Islands” and called the deal “the most shameful failure of British diplomacy this century.”

“We believe it is important to progress on the agreement quickly, but we have not set a specific date for this,” the State Department said last week. She added: “We will only finalize an agreement that is in the national interest of the United Kingdom and within our red lines and that of the United States.”