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China factor spices up tussle over key part of the Indian Ocean
US military airbase of Diego Garcia gets dragged into powerplay
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Campaigners protesting outside the High Court in London in 2025 against the British government’s move to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
PHOTO: REUTERS
With the world’s eyes fixed on the war on Iran since February, and latterly, US President Donald Trump’s trip to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing, it is no surprise that significant recent developments in an area in the south-west Indian Ocean that is as important to the US as is Guam in the Pacific, have passed largely under the radar.
The latest was the omission from the King’s Speech delivered to the British Parliament on May 13 of any reference to the planned British handover to Mauritius of sovereignty over the strategic Diego Garcia military base and the surrounding islands in the Chagos archipelago. The speech typically lays out the government’s legislative agenda and the lack of mention of the Chagos issue is the clearest indication that the long-negotiated handover has been shelved.
