The sudden declaration that the United Kingdom is surrendering a chain of strategic islands was forced by the Biden administration that wanted it done before the November election, a British newspaper reports.
Last week, the British government shocked the world by announcing it was handing over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), also known as the Chagos Islands, to Mauritius. The largest of these islands is Diego Garcia is best known for hosting a large U.S.-UK military base, providing support to long-range bombers, warships, as well as observation and signals intelligence across the ocean into Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
The Mauritius claim on the land was long treated as unserious but the UK has suddenly moved towards accepting them in recent years and even opened talks to discuss matters under the last Conservative government, although this was controversial among Tories then. While there was no prospect of a quick decision, the matter seems to suddenly have been resolved within a matter of weeks after the last UK general election despite it not having been discussed during that election, there having been no parliamentary debate, and no public consultation on what is a major change to the United Kingdom.
Now a report in Britain’s The Daily Telegraph claims that far from simply being a matter of whim to the recently elected left-wing British government, the issue was in fact pushed by Joe Biden’s White House.
The paper asserts “senior officials” from the U.S. National Security Council and State Department ” told the incoming Labour government that refusing to sign away the islands would jeopardise the “special relationship” with Washington.”
Of this alleged blackmail, the Biden White House is alleged to have told the UK that: “a quick deal should be signed before the American and Mauritian elections next month”. The American position is allegedly borne of concern Mauritius would attempt to use international law to try and force the Islands out of Britain’s hands anyway, leading to the loss of the base. Under the agreement announced last week but not revealed in any detail, the UK and U.S. get a 99-year lease on the Diego Garcia base, but concerns about Chinese influence on the Mauritius government and even their possibly being able to establish their own listening posts on other nearby islands persist.
While this latest claim contradicts earlier reports that London was cautioned by Washington D.C., it is a rare day when a national capital speaks with one voice and the elected government and the well-embedded deep state of many democratic nations are often opposed on such matters. Indeed, on the BIOT-Chagos Islands question, both positions are congruous with past U.S. foreign policy, to have strategic bases on one hand, and to be the shepherding hand of European decolonisation on the other.