London would try to persuade Washington to give its formal approval, says PM office
\n london
\nBritain\u2019s government said on Saturday it had put on hold its deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands \u2014 home to the US-British Diego Garcia air base \u2014 which has been criticised by US President Donald Trump.
\nThe planned legislation underpinning the deal to cede the islands to Mauritius, which needs the backing of Washington, would not be included in the government\u2019s next parliamentary agenda, The Times newspaper said.
\nPrime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s office said London would try to persuade Washington to give its formal approval.
\nTrump said in February that the deal was a \u201cbig mistake\u201d, having previously said it was the best that Starmer would get.
\nUnder the deal, Britain would retain control of the strategically important military base on Diego Garcia on a 99-year lease that preserves US operations there.
\nA British government spokesperson said ensuring the long-term operational security of Diego Garcia would remain a priority.
\n\u201cWe continue to believe the agreement is the best way to protect the long-term future of the base, but we have always said we would only proceed with the deal if it has US support. We are continuing to engage with the US and Mauritius,\u201d the spokesperson said.
\nBritain forcibly displaced up to 2,000 indigenous Chagossians in the late 1960s and 1970s to establish the base on the Diego Garcia atoll.
\nToby Noskwith, a spokesperson for Indigenous Chagossian People, a campaign group, said there had been some hesitation about the deal from the start from senior people in the Trump administration, perhaps even the President himself.
\n\u201cWe are astonished to have come to this point. This has been framed mainly as a state-to-state issue but the people who have been lost throughout the process are the Chagossians, particularly elders and survivors,\u201d Noskwith said.
\nHe said questions needed to be asked about \u201cthe enormous sums of money which have been wasted on a collapsed negotiation, and the legality of conceiving a plan which denied the Chagossians their right to self-determination.\u201d He also said Starmer had to facilitate the dignified resettlement of the Chagossian people.
\nThe alliance between Washington and London has come under strain in recent weeks over Starmer\u2019s reluctance to get involved in the US-Israeli war on Iran and his refusal at the start of the conflict to allow Trump to use British air bases to launch attacks.
\nUS forces have since been permitted to carry out what the prime minister calls defensive strikes.
\nTrump has also repeatedly criticised the British leader, saying he was \u201cnot Winston Churchill\u201d and had ruined what is often called a \u201cspecial relationship\u201d between Britain and the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London would try to persuade Washington to give its formal approval, says PM office london Britain\u2019s government said on Saturday it had put on hold its deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands \u2014 home to the US-British Diego Garcia air base \u2014 which has been criticised by US President Donald Trump. The planned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-541362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n