Chagos Islands shouldn’t be handed over to Mauritius, president of Maldives says in letter to UK’s prime minister.
Revealed On 8 Sep 2026
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has written to UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, asking him to reopen talks over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands fairly than handing over the islands to Mauritius.
In an announcement launched on Tuesday by the Maldives’ presidential workplace, Muizzu emphasised “the significance of significant dialogue between the UK and the Maldives on issues regarding the sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago”.
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The Maldives authorities maintains that its personal declare to the Chagos Islands is backed by historic ties and geographical proximity, being about 500km (310 miles) away whereas Mauritius is greater than 4 occasions that distance.
These islands are house to the important thing UK-US navy base on the island of Diego Garcia. It’s the largest island within the archipelago, a strategic location in the midst of the Indian Ocean between Asia and Africa, and residential to a navy base that the UK leases to the US in a 99-year deal.
In his letter, Muizzu “expressed the Maldives’ considerations relating to the UK’s determination to proceed with the handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius”.
Burnham’s predecessor, Keir Starmer, had finalised a deal in Could 2025 to switch sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. The multibillion-dollar settlement would enable the UK to keep up management of the strategically necessary US-UK airbase on Diego Garcia.
Nonetheless, in his newest letter, Muizzu mentioned he was “deeply disenchanted” that the UK didn’t seek the advice of the Maldives when Starmer agreed to cede sovereignty of the archipelago to Mauritius, and urged Burnham to “rectify this oversight by your predecessor”.
Muizzu went on to spotlight “the shared historical past and cultural ties between the Maldives and Chagos, in addition to the Maldives’ longstanding assist for main marine conservation and scientific analysis expeditions within the area”.
Final April, the UK set aside Starmer’s bill that might return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as a consequence of an absence of assist from United States President Donald Trump, as Mauritius promised to “spare no effort” to reclaim the archipelago.
A spokesperson of the UK’s International Workplace was quoted on Tuesday by the Press Affiliation information company as saying that “the query of sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago is a matter for the UK and Mauritius, which is why the earlier authorities launched negotiations with Mauritius on the difficulty in 2022, fairly than with the Maldives”.
