According to the British "Daily Telegraph" on December 1, according to a new strategy being developed by British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, Britain will abandon its plan to return the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius.
It is understood that the defense secretary is alarmed by the UK's plan to negotiate a "Cypriot-style" agreement to return the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius. The archipelago has been under British control since 1814.
The United Nations has called on Britain to return the islands, and a United Nations court has ruled that Britain's possession of the overseas territory is "illegal," the report said.
The Chagos Archipelago, located 310 miles (500 kilometers) south of the Maldives, is reportedly home to the Diego Garcia military base, which was leased to the United States by Britain for U.S. bombing missions in the Middle East. The archipelago is known in the United Kingdom as the British Indian Ocean Territory.
After British Foreign Secretary David Cameron took office last month, Shapps and Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden reached out to Cameron to urge him to cancel plans to return the islands.
It is understood that all three are concerned that its return to Mauritius will jeopardize the UK's "special relationship" with the United States and its defense interests in the "Indo-Pacific region".
The archipelago is the subject of a decades-long dispute between the UK and Mauritius, which won a ruling in 2019 at the International Court of Justice that declared British ownership illegal and demanded that the UK return the archipelago "as soon as possible," the report said.
The United Nations General Assembly welcomed the ruling, with a majority of countries voting in favour of the return of the islands by the United Kingdom. The United States and Australia joined Britain in voting for continued British control of the islands.
It is reported that the United Kingdom has drafted a "Cypriot-style" agreement under which Mauritius will gain sovereignty over the 60 islands, while the United Kingdom will continue to control the military base.
According to the report, this is similar to the agreement reached by the United Kingdom, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey in 1959 on two military bases in Cyprus. In 1960, Cyprus gained independence from the United Kingdom.
The agreement will also involve the UK paying Mauritius a huge sum of up to £2 billion in exchange for the right to use the military base.
Another plan under discussion is reportedly to return all of the territory to Mauritius and lease the base back to the United Kingdom and the United States for a fixed lease term.
However, it is understood that Shapps, who took office in August, told ** that the islands should remain under British control, and he refused to accept the ruling of the International Court of Justice and flouted the United Nations. (Compiled by Zhang Lin).