{"id":124168,"date":"2026-04-12T10:47:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T05:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=124168"},"modified":"2026-04-12T10:47:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T05:47:52","slug":"uk-halts-chagos-islands-handover-after-us-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124168\/","title":{"rendered":"UK halts Chagos Islands handover after US opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>LONDON(National Times)- Britain\u2019s government said Saturday it has put on hold its deal to cede sovereignty of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1968144\">Chagos Islands<\/a>\u00a0to Mauritius, following criticism from US President Donald Trump over the future of a crucial joint military base on the archipelago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The planned legislation to underpin the deal, which requires Washington\u2019s backing, will not be included in the government\u2019s upcoming parliamentary agenda,&nbsp;<em>The Times<\/em>&nbsp;newspaper&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/uk\/politics\/article\/chagos-islands-deal-mauritius-us-keir-starmer-dk68ww03t\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s office said London would continue to seek Washington\u2019s formal approval for the agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The deal has become a point of contention in what analysts describe as a period of strained relations between the two historical allies. Under the agreement, Britain would hand the islands back to Mauritius while retaining control of the strategically vital US-British military base on the atoll of Diego Garcia through a 99-year lease, preserving American military operations there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A British government spokesperson said the base\u2019s operational security remains a top priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe continue to believe the agreement is the best way to protect the long-term future of the base, but we have always said we would only proceed with the deal if it has US support,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cWe are continuing to engage with the US and Mauritius.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump has voiced strong opposition to the plan, calling the deal a \u201cbig mistake\u201d and \u201can act of great stupidity\u201d in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The disagreement over the Chagos Islands comes amid other tensions between the two leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The alliance has been tested by Starmer\u2019s initial refusal to allow the US to use British air bases to launch attacks in the US-Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>US forces have since been perm\u00aditted to carry out strikes that Star\u00admer has defined as defensive. Trump has also publicly criticised the British leader, saying he was \u201cnot Winston Churchill\u201d and had dam\u00ad\u00adaged the \u201cspecial relationship\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mauritius Attorney General Ga\u00ad\u00advin Glover said the delay was expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe information that the agreement has been put on hold does not come as a surprise to us,\u201d Glover told local media Saturday, blaming frayed relations between the American and British leaders. \u201cThe deterioration in relations between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump is at the root of the problem, as the United Kingdom needs the United States to be aligned with the treaty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Glover added that officials from Mauritius and Britain are scheduled to hold discussions on the deal later this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Vows to reclaim islands<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mauritius Foreign Minister Dhananjay Ramful vowed Saturday that his country would continue to pursue every option to regain the islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe will spare no effort to seize any diplomatic or legal avenue to complete the decolonisation process in this part of the Indian Ocean,\u201d Ramful said. \u201cThis is a matter of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Advocates for the indigenous Chagossian people, who were forcibly displaced from the islands by Britain in the late 1960s and 1970s to create the base, expressed dismay at the development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Toby Noskwith, a spokesperson for the campaign group Indigenous Chagossian People, said the group was \u201castonished to have come to this point\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis has been framed mainly as a state-to-state issue but the people who have been lost throughout the process are the Chagossians, particularly elders and survivors,\u201d Noskwith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added that questions needed to be asked about \u201cthe enormous sums of money which have been wasted on a collapsed negotiation, and the legality of conceiving a plan which denied the Chagossians their right to self-determination\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON(National Times)- Britain\u2019s government said Saturday it has put on hold its deal to cede sovereignty of the\u00a0Chagos Islands\u00a0to Mauritius, following criticism from US President Donald Trump over the future of a crucial joint military base on the archipelago. The planned legislation to underpin the deal, which requires Washington\u2019s backing, will not be included in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UK halts Chagos Islands handover after US opposition - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124168\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UK halts Chagos Islands handover after US opposition - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LONDON(National Times)- Britain\u2019s government said Saturday it has put on hold its deal to cede sovereignty of the\u00a0Chagos Islands\u00a0to Mauritius, following criticism from US President Donald Trump over the future of a crucial joint military base on the archipelago. The planned legislation to underpin the deal, which requires Washington\u2019s backing, will not be included in [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124168\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-12T05:47:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-40-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124168\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124168\/\",\"name\":\"UK halts Chagos Islands handover after US opposition - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124168\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124168\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-40-2.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-12T05:47:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124168\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124168\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124168\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-40-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-40-2.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124168\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UK halts Chagos Islands handover after US opposition\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UK halts Chagos Islands handover after US opposition - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124168\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UK halts Chagos Islands handover after US opposition - Nation","og_description":"LONDON(National Times)- Britain\u2019s government said Saturday it has put on hold its deal to cede sovereignty of the\u00a0Chagos Islands\u00a0to Mauritius, following criticism from US President Donald Trump over the future of a crucial joint military base on the archipelago. 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