The UK government has announced its readiness to enter into negotiations with Mauritius over the future of the Chagos archipelago, amid claims by the authorities to London to end colonization of the islands.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said that he wants to «resolve all outstanding issues» on this point, as reported by the British television network BBC.
He also stressed that the operations of the military base in Diego Garcia, jointly managed by the United Kingdom and the United States, will be guaranteed, without giving further details.
The United Nations General Assembly approved in May 2019 a resolution calling on the United Kingdom to hand over control of the archipelago within six months, following the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in this regard.
The ICJ ruled in February 2019 that the UK must end «as expeditiously as possible» its administration of the Chagos archipelago, finding that it was not adequately separated from Mauritius following its decolonization.
The African country claims sovereignty over the archipelago, located in the Indian Ocean, and rejects the UK’s decision to separate the two territories in 1965 in exchange for the country’s independence.
London’s decision implied the transfer of the entire population of Chagos to Mauritius by the United Kingdom and at the request of the United States for the construction of its military base on the island of Diego Garcia, the largest in the archipelago.
