Azeem Ibrahim
The US and the UK have shared a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos Islands, since the 1970s. As I previously argued in the Washington Examiner, Diego Garcia is not an obscure colonial relic but a cornerstone of Western power projection in the Indo-Pacific and Middle East.
The proposed agreement would see the United Kingdom transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while leasing back the base for nearly a century at a cost reportedly running into the billions. This is being framed in London as a legal tidy-up, a necessary act of post-colonial housekeeping. In reality, it is a profound strategic surrender dressed up as moral rectitude.
Trump is correct to oppose it for three core reasons: deterrence credibility, alliance coherence, and systemic competition with China.
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