In a landmark pact, the UK recognizes Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, including Diego Garcia, amid Indian diplomatic support.

Sir Keir Starmer has given up the Chagos Islands, handing the Indian Ocean territory to Mauritius. The islands were British-owned from 1814 but have now been signed away by the Government in a deal that it claimed would safeguard global security by ending a long-running dispute.

The British government has announced it will cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, in an agreement that ends decades of dispute over Britain’s last African colony while maintaining a key US-British military base in the archipelago.

After years of legal wrangling and negotiations, Britain said it would surrender sovereignty of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

The U.K. has agreed to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands, an archipelago of more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius, in a deal to secure the future of a strategically important U.

Sir Keir Starmer has announced the UK is giving up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Britain, which has controlled the region since 1814, detached the Chagos islands in 1965 from Mauritius - a former colony that became independent three years later - to create the British Indian Ocean Territory.