The UK deal on Diego Garcia is positive, but it won’t reverse declining support for the rules-based order

Kate O’Shaughnessy

Source Link

The UK government announced last week that it will cede sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius. The agreement ends an almost 60-year dispute between the two countries, allowing Chagossians displaced in the early 1970s to return home, and ensuring the continued operation for the next 99 years of the US military base on Diego Garcia (one of the islands in the archipelago).

But concluding this deal likely won’t reverse declining support for the international rules-based order, especially across Africa. And for those countries who want more and better multilateralism – like Australia – there’s important lessons to be learned from how the Chagos dispute played out, and now in watching early reactions to the deal, especially in the “Global South”.

What was the Chagos dispute about, and why does it matter?

The dispute over this little-known archipelago goes to the heart of efforts to maintain strategic stability in the Indian Ocean.