What the Chagos Island deal means as Trump calls it ‘terrible’ and Burnham says he will review it

The British Indian Ocean Territory is one of 14 UK Overseas Territories

According to Wes Streeting, Britain is now reviewing the deal which included handing over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

At the UN General Assembly on Tuesday (22 September), Trump said that the deal was “terrible”.

As per the original agreement, Britain would cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius and pay an average of £101m ($136m) per year to lease back a joint UK-US military base.

The deal, which was agreed under PM Keir Starmer, in April was paused indefinitely after Trump pulled his support.

Why the UK will end up reviewing the deal

Secretary Streeting said that the UK will “have to” review the deal “because the United States doesn't support it”.

As he spoke to BBC Breakfast, Streeting said: “What President Trump said yesterday wasn't new but I think it does provide absolute clarity that his position on this Chagos deal as currently drafted is not changing”.

“So we have to do more work with our American allies, with President Trump and his administration, to get the deal to a place where he can support it.”

UK’s focus now is to secure a long-term certainty for the base on Diego Garcia, which is the largest island of the Chagos archipelago, according to Streeting.

Mauritius argues that it was illegally forced to give away the islands in 1965 in order to gain independence.

Streeting said that since Boris Johnson, it has been the view of every British PM that an ongoing legal process risks the base’s security.

British PM Andy Burnham during a meeting with US President Donald Trump, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. Credit: Getty Images

Burnham’s response to Trump’s criticism of the deal

As Trump called it a “terrible deal” and that the UK was “going to be looking” at it during his first face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Burnham, the latter’s response was “yep”.

Later, Burnham told broadcasters that he has “inherited the situation and we need a resolution”.

“It's critical to safeguard the future of the base, and that matters to us for security reasons, but also clearly to the United States as well”, Burnham said.

“What I said in the meeting is that we will work to find that resolution between the different sides, and we'll work hard to find it.”

Ahead of his trip to New York for the UN General Assembly, Burnham spoke to Navin Ramgoolam, the prime minister of Mauritius, during which he “reiterated his commitment to continue doing everything possible” along with the US to ratify the deal, as per an official readout from that meeting.

What the Chagos Islands deal really means – and the UK’s stance now

Comments made by Burnham and Streeting do not represent a major shift from the previous position, according to government sources, the BBC reported.

It was in May of last year when the UK and Mauritius signed an agreement, prior to the pause in April of this year.

However, a final draft of the bill to hand over sovereignty of the islands had not passed Parliament.

The UK would hand sovereignty over the archipelago to Mauritius but lease back the Diego Garcia base for 99 years, under the terms of the deal agreed in 2025.

This would mean a net overall cost of £3.4bn, the UK government said.

The deal has been frequently criticised by Trump. Previously he said this was an “act of total weakness” and a “blight on our great ally”.

Keir Starmer said the deal was “absolutely vital” for the “safety and security of the British people”.

The former PM added that it was needed to end the ongoing UK-Mauritius sovereignty dispute and to guarantee the military base.

US operations out of the base and why Trump really opposes the deal

Diego Garcia, which is the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago, has been used as a joint UK–US military base since the 1970s.

Its use started following the expulsion of the Chagossians by the UK government.

It is one of two critical American bomber bases in the Indo-Pacific region, alongside Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.

Due to its shape and strategic location in the Indian Ocean, it is is nicknamed the “Footprint of Freedom” by the US Navy.

Known as Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, it includes deep-water berths, a massive airstrip for heavy bombers, and space surveillance stations.

The US has described the Diego Garcia base as “an all but indispensable platform” for security operations in the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa.

Home to about 2,500 mostly American personnel, it has supported US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2008, the US acknowledged that it also had been used for clandestine rendition flights of terror suspects.

The US deployed several nuclear-capable B-2 Spirit bombers to Diego Garcia last year amid an intense airstrike campaign targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels.