Fears of China military base on Chagos Islands after deal

Sir Keir Starmer’s proposed deal with Mauritius to hand over the Chagos Islands would not prevent China from building a rival base in another part of the archipelago, according to a written ministerial answer.

- DAVID MADDOX

Fresh concerns about a further security risk to the joint UK/US airbase on Diego Garcia came as foreign office minister Stephen Doughty tried again to get the PM’s handover deal agreed.

Mr Doughty was responding to an urgent question from Tory shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel after the Mauritian prime minister Dr Navin Ramgoolam rejected the deal as “not good enough” and demanded talks were reopened.

Mr Ramgoolam said the draft deal “would not produce the benefits that the nation could expect” and negotiations had restarted.

Shadow defence minister Mark Francois asked Labour if Mauritius “will have the right to allow basing on, occupancy of and access” to other Chagos islands.

The written question was asked because of ongoing concerns that China will use the change in sovereignty to take a key strategic position in the Indian Ocean and render the UK/US base on Diego Garcia unusable.