PORT LOUIS (Reuters) -Mauritius welcomes the prospect of U.S. President Donald Trump examining a deal reached by Britain and Mauritius over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, which house a U.S.-British military base, the island nation’s prime minister said Tuesday.
Britain struck the agreement in October to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while retaining control under a 99-year lease of the military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
However, Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, who was elected in November, has questioned the deal agreed by his predecessor and it is yet to be ratified.
Newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also raised concerns, saying the deal poses a threat to U.S. security, given China’s influence in the region.
Ramgoolam told lawmakers in parliament that it would be “better that Trump has a look at the agreement. President Trump is not a wolf. Let him see if the agreement is good or not”.
“The president has just been elected. I am not in a position to impose a timetable on him. He will look at the issues when he has time,” he said while answering questions from opposition lawmakers on the status of the deal.
Britain has said it was waiting for the new U.S. administration to review the agreement. In a report on Tuesday, the Financial Times cited people familiar with the matter as saying that Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, would discuss the proposed deal with his British counterpart Jonathan Powell in Washington this week.
The British government and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the FT report.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed the matter with Ramgoolam last week, with both leaders reiterating their commitment to a deal, according to a British readout of the call.
When Mauritius became independent from Britain in the 1960s, London retained control of the Chagos Islands and forcibly displaced up to 2,000 people to make way for the Diego Garcia base.
Some Chagossians have also criticised the negotiations, saying they cannot endorse an agreement they were not involved in and have said they will protest against it.
(Reporting by Villen Anganan in Port Louis; Additional reportinng by Jasper ward, Trevor Hunnicutt and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Ammu Kannampilly, Alison Williams and David Gregorio)
