The Mauritian prime minister has asked for an independent review of the Chagos Islands deal with the UK, according to parliamentary records.
According to the Mauritian parliament Hansard record, the new prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, said during a session on Friday: “I wish to inform the house that I have asked for an independent review of the confidential draft agreement agreed so far.”
The deal to cede sovereignty over the archipelago to the Mauritian government was announced earlier this year and officials have said it secures the UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.
Under the terms of the deal, the UK-US military presence on the island is expected to run for 99 years with an option to renew and Britain paying a regular annual sum of money.
The Mauritian PM, a critic of the deal before he took office, reportedly expressed continued reservations after a meeting with the UK’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, on Monday.
Ramgoolam – who has been prime minister of Mauritius twice before – was elected earlier this month, and told his parliament that “contents of the negotiations between Mauritius and the United Kingdom during the past two years were unknown to the new government”.
Earlier this week, Keir Starmer defended the agreement as a “good deal”. He told a press conference on Thursday: “The Chagos deal is a good deal. It secures the base that’s in the vital interests of the US and the UK. And we are already engaging with the new administration in Mauritius as to how we take that forward.”
There has also been criticism reported from the incoming Trump administration in the US. The president-elect’s pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, warned in October that the agreement posed “a serious threat” to US national security by handing over the islands to a country allied with China.
Officials are understood to be confident that the agreement is in both sides’ interests, and Starmer’s official spokesperson said earlier this week that “we have always said that we look forward to engaging with the new Mauritian government and that’s exactly what we’re doing in order to progress the deal”.