A New Chapter in the Chagos Archipelago Dispute
|Editorial
On October 3, 2024, the governments of the Republic of Mauritius and the United Kingdom announced a historic political agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago, including the strategically significant Diego Garcia. This agreement, which partially resolves the decades-long dispute over sovereignty, was the subject of a joint statement by the British and Mauritian Prime Ministers.
There is no doubt that this is a milestone, achieved after years of sustained efforts, lobbying, and diplomatic pressure by successive Mauritian governments since independence, bolstered by support from the Non-Aligned Movement, the African Union, and other Global South nations. Mauritius had already made significant strides in 2019, when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion stating that the UK should relinquish control of the islands, acknowledging that the forced displacement of the Chagossian population in the 1970s to make way for a U.S. military base had been wrongful. This victory was the result of a bold decision by former Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth to bring the case before the ICJ and, later, a crucial vote at the UNGA which Mauritian diplomacy won against intensive lobbying from the UK. Additionally, former Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam deserves credit for challenging the UK’s creation of a Marine Protected Area around the Chagos Islands in 2010 before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg – an initiative that would open the way for further legal challenges at the international level.
There is now a new geopolitical landscape in this part of the world, and a new player in the Chagos imbroglio and the broader great power competition in the Indian Ocean: India. Once seen as opposed to the U.S. presence in Diego Garcia, India is now a member of the Quad and is perceived as a close ally of the U.S., largely due to its heightened threat perceptions of China in the Indian Ocean. India is also viewed as “a key enabler for U.S. strategic and operational interests” in the region, and its role as a facilitator in resolving the Chagos sovereignty and the Diego naval US base issues seems evident. This may explain the joint statement’s reference to India’s “full support and assistance” in reaching the political agreement between the UK and Mauritius. What all this means is that the conditions have today been set for resolving, albeit partly this long-standing dispute between Mauritius and the UK.Read More… Become a Subscriber
Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 4 October 2024
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