Donald Trump today turned his fire back on Sir Keir Starmer by accusing him of ‘giving away’ Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands to Mauritius ‘for no reason whatsoever’ in an ‘act of great stupidity’.
The US President said that ‘there is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness’.
Mr Trump used the Chagos crisis to justify yet again why the United States should be handed Greenland, urging Denmark and his European allies to ‘do the right thing‘.
It came after Sir Keir Starmer held a Downing Street press conference where he branded Donald Trump’s trade war threats over Greenland ‘completely wrong’.
Hours earlier Trump had written a message to Norway’s Prime Minister warning that he ‘no longer feels an obligation to think purely of peace’ because he was denied the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social today: ‘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. These are International Powers who only recognize STRENGTH, which is why the United States of America, under my leadership, is now, after only one year, respected like never before.
‘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. Denmark and its European Allies have to DO THE RIGHT THING.
‘Thank you for your attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.’
The British Government signed a treaty back in May to return sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which will also see Britain lease back the strategically important military base on Diego Garcia for £101million a year.
Donald Trump has gone nuclear over Labour’s 30billion plan to hand the vital archipelago to Mauritius
Trump’s Chagos blast came after Sir Keir Starmer hit back on the President’s desire to have Greenland
Donald Trump has suggested Britain’s decision to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is among the reasons he wants to take over Greenland.
The US President, who is travelling to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, made the claim as he ramped up his rhetoric on acquiring the Arctic territory.
Mr Trump fired off a flurry of posts on his Truth Social platform overnight on Tuesday about taking over Greenland, which is a territory of America’s Nato ally the Kingdom of Denmark.
It came days after Chagos islanders made a last-ditch appeal to Donald Trump to veto Labour’s £30billion plan to hand the vital archipelago to Mauritius.
In a letter to the US President, the islanders’ First Minister Misley Mandarin warns that the ‘very bad deal’ would ‘put at risk’ the strategically important UK-US military base on the island of Diego Garcia.
Mr Mandarin warns that the deal brokered by Keir Starmer’s controversial National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, could give China ‘leverage’ over the base which is seen as a critical military asset in the Indian Ocean.
Mauritius, he says ‘would hold sovereignty over every inch of the US base’.
Mr Mandarin suggests that grateful Chagossians might even be prepared to name an island after President Trump to ‘mark the moment America chose strength, fairness and long-term security over a short-term fix’.
The letter, which is due to be delivered to the White House this weekend, comes ahead of a critical vote in Parliament on Monday on the treaty which would hand the islands to Mauritius.
Ministers insist that the deal is needed to secure the future of the base following a long-running sovereignty dispute. They have agreed to hand Mauritius payments totalling around £30billion in return for a 99-year lease on Diego Garcia, which the UK currently has sovereignty over.
The deal would also end the prospect of the Chagossian people returning to the islands they were forced to leave in the late 1960s to allow for the construction of the military base.
Diego Garcia: Home to a critical UK-US military base that is said to be coveted by China
The White House has previously indicated it is content to let the deal go through.
But critics believe President Trump has never been given the full picture of the risk it would pose to US operations in the Indian Ocean.
Mr Mandarin says that pausing the deal would mean ‘a just and secure solution becomes possible’, in which the Chagossians might one day be able to return home.
He says blocking the deal would also ‘shut the door on Chinese interference’ and ‘provide permanent legal certainty for US operations’.
In a direct appeal, he adds: ’President Trump, you have always been clear… you don’t accept deals that tie America’s hands. And you don’t accept arrangements that look fine on paper but collapse under pressure.
‘There is a better alternative – one that strengthens the base, removes legal risk, defeats Chinese leverage and finally resolves a historic injustice.’
He adds: ‘I am therefore asking you, Mr President, to do what you do best – call out a bad deal and stop it.’
The government suffered four defeats in the Lords earlier this month on the legislation needed to push through the deal with Mauritius.
