Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump has described the UK’s deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and lease back a key military base as an “act of great stupidity”, months after he endorsed the move.
The UK signed the £3.4bn ($4.6bn) agreement in May, under which it would retain control of a UK-US military base on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia.
Previously US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed it as a “monumental achievement”, but on Tuesday, Trump called the deal an “act of total weakness” and said it was among a “very long line of National Security reasons” for his efforts to acquire Greenland.
A UK government spokesperson said it would “never compromise on our national security”.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday morning, Trump said: “Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.
“There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness.”
He added: “The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired.”
In response, a UK government spokesperson said it had acted “because the base on Diego Garcia was under threat after court decisions undermined our position and would have prevented it operating as intended in future”.
They added that the agreement had secured the operations of the joint US-UK military base “for generations, with robust provisions for keeping its unique capabilities intact and our adversaries out”, and noted the deal had been welcomed by allies including the US.
The agreement followed a long-running dispute between the UK and Mauritius – a former British colony – about sovereignty over the Chagos Islands.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones said it “is the right way to secure the future of the island and I wouldn’t for a second suggest that Britain should be embarrassed or humiliated by any of those decisions.”
There has been no official reaction from the Mauritian government. Attorney General Gavin Glover told the BBC there would be “no comment for the time being”.
The Chagos Islands were separated from Mauritius in 1965, when Mauritius was still a British colony. Britain purchased the islands for £3m, but Mauritius has argued that it was illegally forced to give them away as part of a deal to gain independence.
Under the deal agreed in May last year, the UK would hand over sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius, while retaining control of the military base on Diego Garcia.
It would lease back Diego Garcia for a period of 99 years – at an average cost of £101m a year. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that was necessary to protect the base from “malign influence”.
Before signing the deal, the UK offered Trump an effective veto, because of its implications for US security.
Allies of the president had criticised the plan, but during a meeting with Sir Keir in the Oval Office last February, Trump said “I think we’ll be inclined to go along with your country”.
After the agreement was signed in May, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that Washington “welcomed” the deal.
He said it secured the “long-term, stable, and effective operation of the joint U.S.-UK military facility at Diego Garcia”, which he described as a “critical asset for regional and global security.”
Rubio added that “President Trump expressed his support for this monumental achievement during his meeting with Prime Minister Starmer at the White House.”
A government bill to implement the agreement between the UK and Mauritian governments is currently in its final stages.
On Tuesday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said in a post on X that the prime minister now had “the chance to change course on Chagos”.
She said that “paying to surrender the Chagos Islands is not just an act of stupidity, but of complete self sabotage”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has long been a critic of the deal, said in a post on X: “Thank goodness Trump has vetoed the surrender of the Chagos islands”.
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey said Trump’s comments showed Sir Keir’s approach to the US president “has failed”.
“The Chagos Deal was sold as proof the government could work with him, now it’s falling apart,” Davey said in a post on X. “It’s time for the government to stand up to Trump; appeasing a bully never works.”
Labour MP and chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Emily Thornberry, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that while the UK should take Trump “seriously”, it should not take his comments “literally”.
She described his comments on Tuesday as an example of “presidential trolling”, saying she was “in favour of keeping calm and trying to sit this out”.
