Brit national security adviser heads for talks with new Mauritius PM to complete Chagos Islands deal that Trump slammed
NATIONAL security adviser Jonathan Powell has flown out for talks with the new Mauritius PM to complete the deal for the Chagos Islands — despite US opposition.
The UK agreed to pay Mauritius to run the tiny Indian Ocean but their government was booted out of office days later.
The incoming Trump administration has slammed the deal that puts a 99 year lease on a vital US/UK naval base on the island of Diago Garcia amid fears of Chinese influence.
However Jonathan Powell, who negotiated the original terms, flew out yesterday to try keep it alive despite deep American opposition.
Last night Reform boss Nigel Farage blasted: “They want to surrender the Chagos Islands before Trump’s inauguration.
“If we treat the USA like this, can they still regard us as an ally?”
Pressure has been mounting on PM Sir Keir Starmer to tear up his plan to hand over the British Overseas Territory to Mauritius.
Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation, urged US President-elect Donald Trump to intervene.
He told The Sun on Sunday: “The Chagos islands deal is a complete surrender to China by the Starmer Government.
“It is my firm hope that the new US administration will strongly oppose this deal.
“Many US conservatives have been horrified by what Britain has done.
“And I do think that this issue will be an important foreign policy priority for the new regime in the US.
“My strong recommendation to the US President and his advisers is to sink this deal in the same way my former boss Margaret Thatcher sank the Belgrano.”
The Argentine ship, the General Belgrano, was sunk by the Royal Navy in the Falklands War.