John Hill
Enduring disputed claims over Diego Garcia, an atoll within the Chagos archipelago, located in the Indian Ocean, have come to an end after a deal was struck between the UK and Mauritius on 3 October 2024.
As part of the agreement, the UK will retain a key strategic military base on the island it shares with the US military for an initial period of 99 years while the East African state exercises sovereignty over the island chain. While political negotiations have concluded, a formal treaty has yet to be signed.
The Treaty, when ratified, will also “address [the] wrongs of the past,” stated the US State Department, referring to the contentious means by which the two countries agreed to depopulate between 1,500 and 2,000 Chagosians from Diego Garcia, the largest island in the archipelago, ahead of the construction of the base in 1971.
The latest agreement follows 13 rounds of talks that began in 2022 after Mauritian calls for sovereignty were recognised by the International Court of Justice and the UN General Assembly in 2019 and 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment