SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
London: For more than 200 years, Britain could boast – with geographical precision and imperial pride – that the sun never set on its dominions. That boast is finally flickering out.
From the icy peaks of South Georgia to coral reefs in the Pacific, a Union Jack always caught the light somewhere around the globe. But now, for the first time in two centuries, that will no longer be the case.
On Thursday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed what had long been anticipated. Britain would transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius. It ends one of the most enduring – and contested – legacies of its colonial era.
US Navy sailors aboard the USS Paul Hamilton during a routine port visit at Diego Garcia. Credit: US Navy via AP
The islands – under British control since 1814, when France ceded them – include Diego Garcia, a remote atoll hosting a joint UK-US military base that has played a pivotal role in global security for decades. Operated jointly by the US and the UK since the 1970s, the base was a launch pad for American bombers during the Gulf Wars and is a linchpin in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.
“The strategic location of this base is of the utmost significance to Britain,” Starmer said, before reassuring the nation that the military facility would remain under UK-US control, secured through a 99-year lease costing the taxpayer a net £3.4 billion ($7.1 billion).
The agreement followed years of legal and diplomatic pressure. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2019 that Britain’s hold on the Chagos Islands was illegal, ordering it to end its administration “as rapidly as possible”. The United Nations General Assembly followed with a 116-6 vote in favour of decolonisation. Even close allies such as France and Germany quietly distanced themselves.
Facing mounting legal threats, the UK government entered negotiations under the previous Conservative administration. The final deal was announced by Starmer after a High Court injunction brought by a former Chagos resident was overturned on Thursday.
Starmer refused to frame it as a retreat. Instead, he insisted the handover was a strategic necessity.
The arrangement allows the UK and US to maintain Diego Garcia’s military functions unchallenged, shielded from legal challenges that had increasingly threatened its status.
“We had to act now,” Starmer said. “The base was under threat.”
The final deal was announced by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer after a High Court injunction brought by a former Chagos resident was overturned on Thursday.Credit: AP
“If we do not agree this deal … we would not be able to prevent China, or any other nation, setting up their own bases on the outer islands,” he warned. “There is no alternative but to act in Britain’s national interest.”
About 9300 kilometres south-east of the UK, and about 2000 kilometres north-east of Mauritius, Diego Garcia lies at a crucial choke point between the Indian Ocean and key maritime routes.
Its remote location enables a secure base for operations, supporting naval carriers and intelligence-gathering efforts critical to counterterrorism and nuclear monitoring in an age of rising Indo-Pacific tension with China.
To lose that capability – Starmer argued – would be irresponsible, even dangerous.
An aerial view of Diego Garcia. Credit: US Navy via AP
“We would lose the first line of defence against other countries who wish to interfere and disrupt this capability … rendering it practically useless,” he said.
On paper, the agreement is a hard-headed military lease cloaked in diplomatic compromise.
The UK will retain full operational control, including the electromagnetic spectrum satellite used for communications, and enforce a 24-nautical-mile buffer zone around the island within which nothing can be built or placed without British consent. Mauritius is also prohibited from allowing foreign security forces on the outer islands, ensuring the base remains under Western control.
The UK government maintains that the deal offers value for money.
Which countries are still Commonwealth realms?
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Australia
- The Bahamas
- Belize
- Canada
- Grenada
- Jamaica
- New Zealand
- Papua New Guinea
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Solomon Islands
- Tuvalu
- United Kingdom
Starmer noted that the average £101 million annual lease payment “is the same, or slightly less than, the running cost of an aircraft carrier minus the aircraft”.
Additional payments include £45 million annually for 25 years to support economic development projects in Mauritius and £40 million to establish a trust fund for former Chagos residents.
For the Chagossians – descendants of the Afro-Creole islanders forcibly expelled in the 1960s and ’70s – the flag change is not the final chapter but another betrayal.
Some 1500 islanders were uprooted to make way for the US base. The British government once described them dismissively as “a few Tarzans and Man Fridays” and dumped them in Mauritius and Seychelles with little compensation. Decades later, many still live in poverty, facing discrimination and fading hopes of return.
Bernadette Dugasse (centre right), who led a last-minute legal challenge to block the deal, said: “Sir Keir Starmer is washing his hands of the Chagossian people.” Credit: Getty Images
Now, they watch as their birthplace is transferred from one former coloniser to another – again, with little say.
“Sir Keir Starmer is washing his hands of the Chagossian people,” Bernadette Dugasse, who led a last-minute legal bid to block the deal, told reporters.
“We are not 100 per cent sure everyone will benefit. Most of us still live in the same conditions 50 years after we arrived. I don’t trust the Mauritian government.”
The British government concedes that while resettlement on the outer islands is “theoretically possible”, it remains logistically daunting. The £45 million annual support fund for Mauritius will be administered solely by the Mauritian government, without direct UK oversight.
‘We had to act now. The base was under threat.’
British PM Keir Starmer
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch condemned the deal as “an expensive surrender” and accused Labour of saddling taxpayers with enormous costs for diminishing returns. Nigel Farage accused Starmer of “selling off a Cold War jewel to the highest bidder”.
Yet Starmer pointed to the support from key allies.
“It is worth reminding ourselves who is in favour of this treaty – the US, NATO, Five Eyes, India. Against it? Russia, China, Iran, and surprisingly, the leader of the opposition and Nigel Farage.”
In Washington, where the Trump administration had once questioned the deal, it hailed the agreement. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Diego Garcia “critical to regional and global security”. US President Donald Trump gave his personal blessing during a February meeting with Starmer.
A protest outside the High Court last week against the British government’s plan to return control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.Credit: Getty Images
The deeper concern now shifts to what the Chagos handover signals for Britain’s other overseas holdings. Critics warn it may set a precedent, casting long shadows over sovereign base areas such as Akrotiri and Dhekelia in Cyprus – and even stirring uncertainty in places such as Gibraltar and the Falklands.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy insists those territories “are not up for negotiation”, but the UK’s claim that Chagos is a one-off will be tested by time – and by those watching closely.
“The decision on Chagos shows that the UK government understands a need for new thinking on how to preserve the more remote outposts of British influence,” Samir Puri, the director of the Global Governance and Security Centre at Chatham House, said last year.
“There are understandable concerns that, as a result of the decision, China may develop commercial ports in the region and seek to compete with India for economic and strategic relationships. But this is a long-term matter of concern to monitor, regardless of the UK’s decision on Chagos.”
The deal isn’t just another post-colonial housekeeping exercise. It is Britain confronting – and recalibrating – its place in the 21st century. It will keep Diego Garcia operational, and will still help shape Indo-Pacific security, but only by paying rent to a former colony.
And it has been forced – not by war, but by international law – to give back what it once claimed as its own.
After a formal handover later this year, the sun will still rise over Diego Garcia. American jets will still patrol the skies. Intelligence will still pulse through fibre-optic lines beneath the sea.
But the sun has set on the British Empire. Only its echoes remain.
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