This op-ed by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) first appeared in The Telegraph on January 26, 2025.
Sir Keir Starmer appears to have had a change of heart when it comes to working with the Trump administration – and that’s a good thing.
Just a few weeks ago, the Prime Minister was poised to sign away the fate of a joint UK-US military base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
According to reports, Starmer and members of the outgoing Biden administration wanted to finalise the agreement to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands – including Diego Garcia – to Mauritius before President Trump could take his oath.
Fortunately, cooler – and perhaps wiser – heads prevailed. Prime Minister Starmer agreed to welcome President Trump to the negotiating table. This is great news. Friends don’t strike deals behind each other’s backs, especially when our shared security is on the line.
Diego Garcia is among the UK’s most important military assets. Since the 1970s, British and American forces have shared this base to protect our interests in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Diego Garcia offers one of the only locations globally where our militaries can reload submarines. This feature makes it a top target of Chinese spies.
Diego Garcia is secure because the Chagos Islands are a British territory. Our troops don’t need any outside permission to protect our interests against threats from China.
The Chinese Communist Party would love nothing more than for the security of Diego Garcia to fall into weaker hands, yet that appears to be what the UK was set to offer Mauritius.
The British were considering a deal that would have ceded sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius in exchange for a 99-year lease to maintain our shared base on Diego Garcia. The UK offered £90 million per year in rent.
America’s new Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned that allowing Diego Garcia to slip into the hands of Mauritius would “provide an opportunity for communist China to gain valuable intelligence”.
Mauritius and China have grown increasingly chummy. They entered a trade agreement in 2021. Mauritius’s new prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, has signalled his intent to bolster diplomatic relations with China. He once relayed to his supporters that President Xi Jinping told him: “China never forgets its friends.”
Iran is now seeking to deepen its ties with the nation’s new government. If Mauritius is growing its friendships with China and Iran, how can we expect it to keep spies away from our base?
It’s hard to believe that China and Iran aren’t trying to pull Mauritius into their axis and away from the West.
The UK was under some pressure from the Biden administration and the far-Left activists at the United Nations to relinquish control of the Chagos Islands, but there is no clear reason why ceding the territory is a prudent response to this campaign.
Chagossians and Mauritians are practically strangers. They share almost no pre-colonial ties to one another, and they are separated by more than 1,200 miles of water. London is closer to Rome than Mauritius is to Diego Garcia.
Chagossians consider themselves an indigenous people. Members of the Chagossian diaspora have repeatedly expressed their opposition to the deal – and I don’t blame them. The Mauritian government may not even allow Chagossians to visit the islands.
The idea that the UK must hand over the islands to atone for whatever perceived wrongs Britain’s forefathers may have committed is nonsense. The UN does not care about what is best for the Chagossian, British or American people. They only care about furthering a misguided anti-Western agenda.
The UK is our ally, and Mauritius is our friend, but this is a matter of national security for the US. Anyone who expects the Trump administration to elevate the sensitivities of UN militants above the best interests of America and our allies is writing a cheque that can’t be cashed.
The Chagossian, American and British people would all be safer if this deal with Mauritius found its way into the shredder for good.
John Kennedy is a US Senator for Louisiana
