MISLEY MANDARIN: Why Chagos Islands Matter To US Security

On May 22, the United Kingdom signed an agreement with Mauritius that would transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago. For my people, the Chagossians, the decision was taken without our consent and against our clearly expressed wishes. That is why recent scrutiny from Washington, including questions raised by President Donald Trump about the wisdom of the deal, deserves serious attention. The issue is not only justice for an exiled people. It goes to the future of one of the most strategically important military installations in the world.

I am a British Chagossian. My family comes from these islands. Like thousands of others, my ancestors were forcibly removed during the Cold War so that a joint U.S., U.K. military base could be built on Diego Garcia. We have lived in exile ever since. Now we face the prospect of being erased again, this time not by expulsion, but by diplomatic fiat.

A survey overseen in December by the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee recorded overwhelming opposition among Chagossians to the transfer of sovereignty to Mauritius. A clear majority of respondents said they wished to remain British and did not trust Mauritius to safeguard their rights, culture or future.

That opposition is grounded in law as well as history. Earlier this month, a United Nations committee reaffirmed that the Chagossian people possess a right to self-determination and warned that arrangements reached without their participation risk undermining it. Yet Prime Minister Keir Starmer has indicated his intention to proceed.

In response, Chagossians have taken an unprecedented step. Following an independently organized and verified process involving families expelled between 1967 and 1973, we declared the formation of a Chagossian government in exile to assert that right internationally. I was elected interim first minister to represent that cause.

To most Americans, the Chagos Archipelago is known as Diego Garcia, a linchpin of U.S. power projection across the Indian Ocean, vital to protecting trade routes and sustaining the Indo-Pacific balance. For us, it is home.

We do not oppose the base. Chagossians have long supported the U.S. presence and see it as central to global security and to our own future prosperity. We seek to return as British Chagossians, loyal to the Crown and committed partners of the United States.