Diego Garcia Base. Trump: I reserve the right to secure it militarily

US President Donald Trump said in a conversation with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that he reserves the right to “militarily secure and strengthen” the US-British military base on Diego Garcia Island in the Indian Ocean. Great Britain will give this island to Mauritius.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he had a “very productive” conversation with Starmer about the island, which is part of the Chagos Islands. In 2025, Great Britain agreed to return it to Mauritius, while also signing a 99-year lease for the Diego Garcia military base.

I understand that the deal Prime Minister Starmer struck was, in the opinion of many, the best he could have struck. However, if the lease, at some point in the future, falls apart or anyone threatens or jeopardizes U.S. operations and forces at our base, I reserve the right to militarily secure and enhance the U.S. presence on Diego Garcia, Trump wrote.

“Let it be known that I will never allow our presence at such an important Base to be undermined or compromised by false claims or environmental nonsense,” he added.

In May 2025, the Starmer government finalized the agreement negotiated by the previous government in London to transfer Chagos to Mauritius, because – as the British Prime Minister claimed – Great Britain would have no real chance of winning the case before an international tribunal. Already in 2019, the International Court of Justice, in a non-binding ruling, decided that the UK was obliged to return the islands to Mauritius.

Trump originally supported the agreement concluded by Starmer, but in the face of efforts to acquire Danish Greenland, he later called it an “act of great stupidity.” He also used this case as an argument that the United States must have sovereignty over Greenland, because no other form would guarantee a permanent US military presence on the world's largest island.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

osk/ap/