China backs Starmer's Chagos deal

Telegraph

4 days ago

The Chinese government has welcomed Sir Keir Starmer's Chagos Islands deal as a 'massive achievement', despite his claim that Beijing had opposed it.
Beijing's ambassador to Mauritius talked up the deal in a speech on Tuesday, after Sir Keir signed away the Chagos Islands and agreed to pay Mauritius £30 billion over 99 years.
Huang Shifang told guests at the Chinese embassy that her government offered 'massive congratulations' on the deal, and that China 'fully supports' Mauritius's attempt to 'safeguard national sovereignty'.
She also confirmed that Mauritius would soon join Beijing's Belt and Road initiative, despite claims from the UK Government that the East African island nation was not under Chinese influence.
The relationship between Mauritius and China has been a point of contention for Sir Keir, who faced accusations he was giving away British territory to an ally of one of the UK's enemies.
The Chagos Islands, known in the UK as the British Indian Ocean Territory, host the Diego Garcia military base which is jointly used by British and US forces.
Under the terms of the Prime Minister's deal announced last week, the UK will pay billions of pounds to rent back the military base after sovereignty of the islands has been transferred to Mauritius.
The Government argues that the deal creates legal security from the base, which was under threat from a territorial dispute from Mauritius in the international courts.
Addressing his critics, Sir Keir told a press conference that Conservative and Reform opponents of the deal were in a 'column' with Russia, China and Iran, who he said had all opposed it.
'In favour are all of our allies: the US, Nato, Five Eyes, India,' he said.
'Against it: Russia, China, Iran. Surprisingly, the leader of the opposition and Nigel Farage are in that column alongside Russia, China and Iran, rather than the column that has the UK and its allies in it.'
But that argument was contradicted by the Chinese government five days later, when their ambassador welcomed the deal.
According to the local newspaper Le Mauricien, Ms Huang told party guests on Tuesday that China offered 'massive congratulations' to Mauritius for securing the disputed territory with the UK.
Dame Priti Patel, the Tory shadow foreign secretary, told The Telegraph: 'Once again, Keir Starmer has been caught peddling a lie.
'He claimed that those who opposed his mad plan to surrender the Chagos Islands were in league with hostile powers – whilst himself handing over control of our own sovereign territory to a nation firmly in China's grasp.
'And now China itself has welcomed the deal – knowing that Labour weakening our national security is at their benefit – Keir Starmer must apologise, and retract his baseless slander.'
A Mauritian government statement said that the Chinese ambassador pointed to 'Mauritius's firm adherence to the One-China policy', the political doctrine that Taiwan is part of China, and drew comparison between China's dispute with Taiwan and Mauritius's dispute with the UK.
The government statement said she 'commended the recent achievement regarding the Chagos Archipelago'.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not mention the Chagos Islands in its own statement, but said: 'China expects Mauritius to join the Belt and Road Initiative as soon as possible and work together to promote the building of an all-weather, China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era.'
It comes after The Telegraph revealed that Mauritius was building a closer relationship with China, Russia and Iran, all of whom have sent ambassadors to meet the Mauritian prime minister in the past six months.
Critics of the Chagos deal said those diplomatic ties would endanger the Diego Garcia base by allowing the UK's enemies to build spying installations on nearby islands.
The final text of the agreement says that neither China nor any other country can build installations on the outlying islands without the UK's consent, and that all civilian or military security staff are banned from entering the archipelago.