‘They’re not Starmer’s to give away!’ PM hit by new fury over controversial Chagos deal | World | News

Keir Starmer’s controversial determination to switch sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius has been introduced by many in London as a long-overdue act of decolonisation. But hundreds of miles away in the Indian Ocean, another nation says Britain is handing the islands to the unsuitable claimant. 

In an unique interview for Express.co.uk President Mohamed Muizzu of the Maldives has confirmed that his authorities has contacted its British counterpart over the future of the Chagos Islands, recognized traditionally in the Maldives as Foalhavahi. The Maldives, he argues, is geographically nearer, more traditionally related, and legally higher positioned than Mauritius to assert sovereignty. If the Maldivian bid succeeds, it could derail the UK–Mauritius treaty signed in May 2025 – but spare British taxpayers a invoice estimated at £35 billion, with some projections operating as high as £80 billion.

At the coronary heart of the problem is Diego Garcia, the strategically very important airbase that underpins UK–US defence across the Indo-Pacific, serving as a bulwark to an more and more aggressive China. Under the new plan agreed between Britain and Mauritius, Chagos would be handed to Mauritius, with the UK and US retaining control of the Diego Garcia army base through a lease of 99 years, paying Mauritius around £100 million each 12 months in rent for land that Britain at present owns.

For Muizzu, however, the dispute is not about geopolitics alone — it is about historic accuracy, equity, and Britain’s willingness to hear to a long-standing accomplice.

President Mohamed Muizzu instructed Express.co.uk: “Through an exchange of official correspondence the British Government is fully aware of our concerns and our claim. The Maldives has historical connections to the Chagos Islands – known to us as Foalhavahi – which lie south of Maldivian waters. These connections are based on documental evidence, and we believe gives the Maldives a greater claim than any other country.

“Currently we have raised our claim and our concerns with the British government in official correspondence. I cannot disclose the content of these discussions, except to reiterate our confidence that the Maldives has the strongest claim over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands.”

The island of Mauritius and its capital Port Louis lies about 1,300 miles from the Chagos Islands. By comparability Male, the capital of the Maldives, is just 310 miles from the Chagos Islands.

The historic and cultural hyperlinks between the Maldives and Chagos are broadly documented. Gravestones discovered etched with phrases in Dhivehi – the Maldives’ official language, present one of the many items of evidence of long-standing financial and population ties.

Unlike Mauritius which was uninhabited before the seventeenth century when Dutch, French, and later British colonialists introduced people from Europe and Africa to populate the island, the Maldives has been populated for over 2,500 years. The Maldivian gravestones on Chagos are over 900 years outdated – before Mauritius had its colonial inhabitants – while centuries-old Maldivian people tales inform of seafarers and fishermen being stranded there. A sixteenth century patent from a Maldivian King even states his kingdom’s sovereignty over Chagos – courting from more than 100 years before Mauritius had a human population. Alongside carbon-dated archaeological evidence, the DNA of modern-day Chagossians – residents of Chagos who were forcibly eliminated by the British authorities in the Nineteen Seventies to make approach for the UK-US army base – demonstrates they have Maldivian and Creole heritage.

Despite the disagreement over Keir Starmer’s Chagos deal, President Muizzu says relations stay very robust and that few nations have nearer people-to-people ties with Britain than the Maldives, a vacation spot routinely cited as Britons’ quantity one dream vacation vacation spot.

The President said: “The Maldives has been Britain’s favourite dream holiday from the very beginning”.

“British tourists helped make the Maldives. Britons were the first visitors in large numbers, British architects, engineers and hoteliers were among our earliest advisers, and British hospitality standards are those we adopted.”

That relationship stays robust. British guests persistently rank in the high three nationalities arriving each 12 months, drawn by what Muizzu describes without hesitation as “the most crystal-clear waters and most perfect beaches with the whitest sands on earth.”