UK greatly hiding real cost of Indian Ocean base agreement
(MENAFN) The UK government is set to pay far more than publicly stated to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius, The Telegraph reports. While the official figure for the deal is £3.4 billion ($4.6 billion), documents from the Government Actuary’s Department suggest payments could total nearly £35 billion ($47.1 billion) over the 99-year leaseback period.
The Chagos archipelago, home to over 60 islands, was separated from Mauritius in 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence. Diego Garcia, the largest island, was leased to the US for military use in 1966, displacing around 2,000 inhabitants. Mauritius has long sought to reclaim the territory, and in 2019, the International Court of Justice advised the UK to end its administration “as rapidly as possible.”
In May, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed the sovereignty transfer agreement, allowing Britain and the US to retain joint control of the Diego Garcia military base for an initial 99 years. Starmer dismissed earlier higher estimates of £9 billion ($12.1 billion) and £18 billion ($24.2 billion) as “absolutely wide of the mark.”
The Telegraph noted that the official figure uses certain inflation assumptions and accounting methods that understate long-term costs. Conservative lawmakers criticized the approach as “statistical jiggery-pokery” designed to obscure the scale of spending. A government spokesperson emphasized that the Diego Garcia base is “essential to the security of the UK and our key allies,” while Mauritius’ Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam described the deal as a historic step toward completing decolonization.
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