The president of the Maldives has formally told the UK that it does not recognise the deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
President Mohamed Muizzu's office told the BBC that the Maldives had expressed its opposition to the deeply concerning deal through two written objections and a phone call with Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy.
The nation of tropical islands in the Indian Ocean is asserting sovereignty over the Chagos Islands and is threatening international legal action to press its claim.
UK Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty has stated that the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands is a matter for Britain and Mauritius, not the Maldives. A government source added that international courts had previously considered the question of sovereignty over the Chagos Islands and ruled in favour of Mauritius.
The Chagos Islands, officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, have been under UK control since the early 19th century. Last year, the UK government agreed to transfer control of the territory to Mauritius, with the UK paying an average cost of £101 million annually to lease a joint military base on the largest island.
Mauritius has long claimed the islands and has pursued international legal action for their return. Labour ministers have suggested that failing to reach a deal with Mauritius could jeopardise the future of the military base due to international legal rulings.
However, the deal has not yet been confirmed in UK law and appears to be indefinitely on hold after US President Donald Trump urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to maintain control of the territory.
The Maldives opposes Mauritian control and highlights historical claims to the archipelago going back centuries. In correspondence sent to the UK government, Muizzu's office asserted that the unilateral decision to proceed with Mauritius was concerning and did not consider Maldivian interests.
In a call with Lammy last December, Muizzu warned that any transfer must account for Maldivian interests. Recent legal rulings, including from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea which supported Mauritius's claims, strengthen the complex scenario surrounding the islands.
Muizzu's administration maintains that the Maldives holds a prior claim to the Chagos Islands and is reviewing legal efforts to assert its position, emphasizing the need for dialogue with the UK to resolve the matter amicably.
