Donald Trump has backed the UK’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after holding ‘very productive’ discussions with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Britain struck a deal to transfer sovereignty of the Indian Ocean islands to Mauritius, while maintaining control of the Diego Garcia base on a lease agreement for 99 years at a cost of $47 (£35) million.
‘I understand that the deal [Starmer] has made, according to many, the best he could make,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday.
‘However, if the lease deal, sometime in the future, ever falls apart, or anyone threatens or endangers US operations and forces at our Base, I retain the right to Militarily secure and reinforce the American presence in Diego Garcia.’
Trump last month tore into Starmer’s deal, despite initially endorsing it, warning the agreement was an ‘act of great stupidity’, an ‘act of total weakness’ and claimed the site of the Diego Garcia base was being given away ‘for no reason whatsoever’.
The President argued that giving away the islands was an act of surrender and warned the territory could fall into the hands of China, an ally of Mauritius.
Starmer accused the US of changing stance as a pressure tactic in Trump’s bid to seize Greenland from Nato ally Denmark.
President Donald Trump speaks during the 74th annual National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton on February 5
Trump talks with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House in August
Britain struck a deal to transfer sovereignty of the Indian Ocean islands to Mauritius, while maintaining control of the Diego Garcia base on a lease agreementfor 99 years at a cost of $47 (£35) million
The White House has since retreated from threats over the Arctic island, after a backlash from other Western powers.
Starmer had appeared to avoid raising the issue directly with Trump until a phone call at the beginning of this week.
A Downing Street readout of that call showed the PM and President agreed to ‘continue working closely’ to secure the future of the Diego Garcia base.
Downing Street has insisted the case for the Chagos Islands deal is ‘crystal clear’ after Lord Mandelson claimed there had been a ‘wobble’ over it within the Government.
The former US ambassador, who was forced to resign in September over links to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, revealed the private concerns in an interview with the Times.
He said he ‘became aware of a serious wobble in London over the agreement and its sell-ability to the British public’.
‘That was to do with the price tag and whether we had the total legal obligation to enter the deal and whether the original legal case made for the agreement in Whitehall was as watertight as was claimed,’ the peer said.
‘So on the one hand I faced a skeptical US administration and then at another point a wobbly government of my own behind me.’
