“A big mistake.” Trump warns Starmer not to give up key military base in Indian Ocean, which he would need if Iran were to attack
Diego Garcia Island where the American-British military base is located. Photo: US Navy / AP / Profimedia
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was making a “big mistake” by giving up a key military base in the Indian Ocean, saying it would be vital if the United States attacked Iran.
“DO NOT GIVE IN DIEGO GARCIA!”, Trump wrote on his Truth Social network, hours after the State Department again supported the British agreement to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and lease the land for this base for a period of 99 years.
“Our relationship with the United Kingdom is strong and solid, and has been so for many years, but Prime Minister Starmer is losing control of this important island due to the claims of entities unknown until now. In our opinion, they are fictitious,” wrote Donald Trump, according to News.ro.
He went on to say that if Iran does not reach a peace deal with the United States, “the US may need to use Diego Garcia” as well as Fairford Air Force Base in Gloucestershire to “eradicate a potential attack by a highly unstable and dangerous regime – an attack that could be directed against the United Kingdom as well as other friendly countries.”
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“Prime Minister Starmer should not, for any reason, lose control of Diego Garcia by entering into a 100-year lease that is tenuous at best,” the US president continued.
“This territory should not be taken from the UK and if allowed to do so will be a blow to our great ally. We will always be ready, willing and able to fight for the UK but it must remain strong in the face of wokeism and other issues it faces,” Trump wrote.
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This post by President Donald Trump comes just hours after the US government said it supports the deal struck by Keir Starmer's government.
A US State Department spokesman said: “The United States supports the United Kingdom's decision to continue the agreement with Mauritius on the Chagos Archipelago. The United States reiterates its desire to enter into a bilateral agreement with the United Kingdom to guarantee the continued use of bases and other facilities in the Chagos Archipelago to promote US national security and security and stability in the Indian Ocean.”
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The Chagos Archipelago is a group of 65 tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, located 500 km from the Maldives. The total area of the islands is 63 km², the largest of which is the island of Diego Garcia, which has an area of 44 km².
Great Britain, which had controlled the region since 1814, decided in 1965 to administratively split the Chagos Islands from Mauritius, a former colony that it would peacefully recognize as independent 3 years later.
The Chagos Islands were organized into the so-called British Indian Ocean Territory.
In the early 1970s London relocated nearly 2,000 islanders to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for an air base on Diego Garcia, an island it had ceded to the United States in 1966.
But the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled in 2019 that Britain illegally divided the islands three years before Mauritius proclaimed its independence.
Mauritius argued before the panel that the British decision to divide the country's territory while it was a colony of London was illegal. Most of the judges accepted this argument, saying that “the process of (British) decolonization has not been legally completed” because of London's actions.
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The Hague Court also ruled that Britain must withdraw its administration from the archipelago “as soon as possible. The court's decision was not binding, but it was considered of huge symbolic importance.
The court's recommendation was welcomed by the roughly 2,000 people evacuated by the British from the island between 1960 and 1970 so the US could build its air base here. Diplomatic correspondence of the time described the evacuation of the islands as the removal of “a few Tarzans and Fridays” – a reference to the famous black servant in the novel “Robinson Crusoe”.
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Many of the former inhabitants of the Chagos Islands settled in Great Britain, from where they continued the fight for the complete decolonization of the region.
The signing of Britain's deal with Mauritius has been delayed to take place after Trump's inauguration in January 2025, with London wanting to give the new Republican administration time to work out the details of the plan finalized during President Joe Biden's tenure.
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