Latest news with #militarybase
Asharq Al-Awsat
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Türkiye Seeking to Establish Naval, Air Bases in Syria
Türkiye is seeking to establish an airbase and a naval base in Syria to 'bolster counter-terrorism efforts, especially in the fight against ISIS,' revealed media close to the Turkish government. Security sources said the armed forces are determined to set up the two bases as part of a comprehensive plan to restore security in Syria, reported the Türkiye newspaper. The effort will take place in cooperation with the Damascus government and receive direct support from the Turkish government. Support will take the shape of training and restructuring the Syrian army and security forces. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed defense cooperation between Ankara and Damascus during a meeting in Istanbul on Saturday. Israel has voiced alarm over the possibility of an expanded Turkish military role in Syria. Ankara and Tel Aviv, however, agreed on a 'deconfliction mechanism' in Syria during talks in Azerbaijan to avoid any tensions between them.
The Independent
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Why is Britain handing over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius?
After some last-minute legal delays, the Chagos Islands treaty between the UK and Mauritius has been signed, and will almost certainly be implemented in the coming weeks. The great controversies about the UK-US military base in this remote stretch of the Indian Ocean have passed most of Britain's population by, but for some the issue remains a matter of passionate concern, and the charge of 'treason' has been lobbed at the prime minister. The arguments won't go away... What happens next? In the UK, there will have to be a parliamentary debate and approval within 21 (sitting) days of the signature, and given that the Commons is in recess again for a week, things won't be finalised for a while. In the past, international agreements would be signed under the royal prerogative, thus averting the need for formal legislative approval. However, this is now required under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, and the provisions of the treaty ought to be enshrined in domestic law (including the Mauritius Independence Act 1968). Given Labour's overwhelming majority, the treaty is bound to be ratified, but Priti Patel for the Conservatives, along with Reform UK, will put up a fight. What difference will it make? It will settle for at least a century the status of the Chagos Islands, including the base on Diego Garcia, and thus make the area safe from any further action under international law. Why are we giving the Chagos Islands away anyway? Arguably, the UK is not giving the Chagos Islands 'away', but 'back' to their rightful owner, Mauritius. They were carved out of the old Mauritius crown colony in 1965 as a condition for granting the rest of the territories independence, which came three years later. A new colony, now a British Overseas Territory, of the British Indian Ocean Territory was created to administer the area. It will soon disappear, and the islands will be Mauritian sovereign territory, the base area leased back for 99 years with an option to renew. Why can't we just carry on as we are? We could, but it's getting more hazardous. First, because the ownership of the islands is under dispute, and multiple UN and International Court rulings have said they belong to Mauritius. More adverse decisions are on the way, too. Although these have been safely ignored by the British and Americans for decades, it's hardly ideal. One risk is that Mauritius could lawfully grant, say, China or India permission to establish a military base on another of the islands, and that would spark a serious crisis to say the least. Another practical threat is highlighted by the defence secretary, John Healey: 'The most proximate, the most potentially serious, is the tribunal of the international Convention [on the Law] of the Sea.' If the government lost a case there, the government says, other countries and UN agencies would be obliged – by international law – to take decisions that would hamper the operations of the base. In addition, Diego Garcia's satellite communications would be in jeopardy, because the UK relies on a UN agency in Geneva to maintain access to a particular electromagnetic spectrum. Company contractors nervous about international law might refuse to come to the base, while international regulations on air travel might also make passage to the islands more difficult. What will it cost? Some £101m a year, plus additional development aid for Mauritius. Some of this will be index linked, but it's spurious to try to translate it into prospective cash terms at 2124 price levels. The UK will pay the lease, with no US contribution. Keir Starmer argues, in effect, that UK national security also benefits from the base, and the money is worth spending to help preserve the ' special relationship ' with America. What about the Chagossians? There are none left on the islands to consult or to take part in a referendum. In a shameful episode during decolonisation, they were deported, with most settling in Mauritius, the Seychelles and the UK. Many oppose the deal, but their legal actions have failed. Is the base useful? Certainly to the US, as a centre for space communications and communications surveillance, and for bombing raids in the Middle East. It is also useful as a base for aircraft carriers, among other things. Does it matter politically? The opposition parties are weaponising the deal as proof that Labour is weak and basically unpatriotic, hence the Tory slogan 'when Labour negotiates'. Irrelevant to domestic political issues, for some it will become totemic, as was the case when Gordon Brown as chancellor sold off some of the UK's gold reserves for equally rational reasons. The Chagos Islands deal, then, provides a handy source of dishonest jibes for the Tories and Reform, but won't seal the fate of the Starmer administration at the next election.
The Independent
23-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Minister defends ‘good value' Chagos deal as Badenoch says Trump ‘laughing'
A minister has said the US will be paying 'many multiples more' to operate the Diego Garcia military base than the UK will pay to lease it under the Chagos deal, as Kemi Badenoch said the agreement would leave Donald Trump 'laughing'. Armed forces minister Luke Pollard defended the deal as 'good value' but the Tory leader said the US president has got a 'great deal at the expense of the UK'. In a treaty to 'complete the process of decolonisation of Mauritius', the Government has agreed to pay at least £120 million-a-year for 99 years for control of the vital Diego Garcia base, plus hand over £1.125 billion for economic development over a 25-year period. The Government has faced questions about their estimation of the full cost. Officials said the deal amounted to an average of £101 million a year in 2025/26 prices with an overall cost of £3.4 billion a year 'using a net present value methodology'. The Tories have said the true cost of the deal could rise to more than £30 billion if inflation is at the 2% target. Mr Pollard stood firm on the figures and said the cost was 'comparable' to bases other allies lease in the region. 'So it's £3.4 billion over 99 years – that represents good value,' he told Sky News. The French pay 85 million euros a year to rent a base in Djibouti that is 'literally next door to the Chinese naval base that's leased there', he said. He argued that Diego Garcia is '15 times bigger than that French base' and the UK had secured an 'exclusion zone' around the base to protect UK and US operations. The Trump administration in Washington supported the deal, which guarantees the future of the base which is used extensively by the US armed forces. Asked why the US is not contributing to the cost of leasing back the base, he said the partner country pays much more in operational costs. 'What we are bringing to the deal is the real estate, the UK will be leasing the base and the Americans pay for the operating costs of the base – now that is many multiples more than the leasing cost,' he told Times Radio. Tory leader Mrs Badenoch said the US was benefiting at the UK's expense. 'Donald Trump is laughing at that Chagos deal,' the Conservative Party leader told BBC Breakfast. 'He's welcoming it because he's not going to have to pay very much, if anything at all. 'He's got a great deal at the expense of the UK. That's not right. It hasn't been done in our national interest. 'What I want to see is more nurses being paid well but we can't do that because we're taking a lot of terrible decisions under Keir Starmer that are weakening our country.' The total cash cost over the 99-year term of the deal will be at least £13 billion for the use of the base and the 25-year agreement to hand over money to support projects to promote the 'economic development and welfare of Mauritius'. The International Court of Justice, in an advisory opinion in 2019, said the Chagos Archipelago should be handed over. Ministers argued that the deal needed to be done because the UK would have faced legal challenges 'within weeks' which could have jeopardised the operation of the Indian Ocean base which is used by US and British forces. The UK will retain full operational control of Diego Garcia, including the electromagnetic spectrum satellite used for communications which counters hostile interference. A 24-nautical mile buffer zone will be put in place around the island where nothing can be built or placed without UK consent.
The Independent
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Displaced Chagos islanders fear they will never go home after a UK-Mauritius deal
Bernadette Dugasse was just a toddler when her family was forced to leave her birthplace. She didn't get a chance to return until she was a grandmother. Dugasse, 68, has spent most of her life in the Seychelles and the U.K., wondering what it would be like to set foot on the tropical island of Diego Garcia, part of the remote cluster of atolls in the middle of the Indian Ocean called the Chagos Islands. Like hundreds of others native to the islands, Dugasse was kicked out of her homeland more than half a century ago when the British and U.S. governments decided to build an important military base there. After years of fighting for the right to go home, Dugasse and other displaced islanders watched in despair Thursday as the U.K. government announced it was formally transferring the Chagos Islands' sovereignty to Mauritius. While political leaders spoke about international security and geopolitics, the deal meant only one thing for Chagossians: That the prospect of ever going back to live in their homeland now seems more out of reach than ever. 'We are the natives. We belong there,' said Dugasse, who has reluctantly settled in Crawley, a town south of London. 'It made me feel enraged because I want to go home.' Entire population evicted Dugasse was born on the Chagos Islands, which had been under the administration of Mauritius, a former British colony, until 1965, when Britain split them away from Mauritius. Mauritius gained independence in 1968, but the Chagos remained under British control and were named the British Indian Ocean Territory. Dugasse was barely 2 years old when her family was deported to the Seychelles in 1958 after her father, a laborer, allegedly broke a work contract. They were never allowed back. Throughout the 1960s, many other islanders who thought they were leaving temporarily – for a holiday, or medical treatment -- would be told they cannot return to the Chagos. It turned out that Britain was evicting the entire population of the Chago Islands -- about 1,500 people descended from African slaves and plantation workers –- so the U.S. military could build a base on the largest island, Diego Garcia. By 1973, all Indigenous Chagossians were forced to leave. Thousands of islanders and their descendants are now spread around the world, most living in Mauritius, the U.K. and Seychelles. Most want to return home. Britain's government has acknowledged that its removal of islanders was wrong, and has granted many citizenship and set aside some funds to improve their lives. But it continues to bar Chagossians from returning and living in their homeland, citing defense and security concerns and 'cost to the British taxpayer.' Although the British government this week finalized a deal to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos to Mauritius, ending a long contested colonial legacy, there is no upside for Chagossians. Dugasse and other islanders say they were completely excluded from political negotiations, and that Mauritius' government is unlikely to grant them any right to return. Under the deal, which still needs Parliament's approval, Britain will lease back the Diego Garcia military base for at least 99 years. That means the island will be off-limits for the foreseeable feature. 'I don't have a Mauritian passport. I don't want to affiliate myself with Mauritius,' she said. 'We have our own culture. We have our own identity. We are unique Indigenous people.' 'Every day I cried' Dugasse and another Diego Garcia native, Bertrice Pompe, sought to bring legal action against the British government over the deal to transfer the Chagos Islands to Mauritian control. They only managed to halt the signing of the deal by a few hours Thursday. Pompe said it was a 'very sad day' but she wasn't giving up. 'The rights we're asking for now, we've been fighting for for 60 years,' Pompe said outside a London courthouse. 'Mauritius is not going to give that to us. So we need to keep fighting with the British government to listen to us.' Human Rights Watch and other groups have urged Britain's government to recognize the Chagossians' right to return home, calling its failure to do so a 'continuing colonial crime against humanity." Dugasse — who received British citizenship but said she got no other compensation — has been allowed back to Diego Garcia just twice in recent years. Both times the visits were only possible with special permission from the U.K. government. She described the island as a 'mini-America,' populated by American service members and Filipino staffers. She visited the church where her parents were married and where she was baptized, but found her village cemetery and school in ruins. And when she collected seashells and white sand from the beach, officials told her she wasn't allowed to bring those home. 'I told them no — (the shells and the sand) are mine, not yours,' she said. 'We were allowed there for only nine days, and every day I cried.' Dugasse said her elderly mother, who lives in the Seychelles, would like to die on Diego Garcia. She doesn't think that's possible — and she is pessimistic that any of her children or grandchildren will get a chance to see where their family came from. 'Are we Chagossians always going to be nomads, going from place to place?" she asked. "Most of the natives are dying. What will happen? It's time for us to set foot home.'
Associated Press
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Displaced Chagos islanders fear they will never go home after a UK-Mauritius deal
LONDON (AP) — Bernadette Dugasse was just a toddler when her family was forced to leave her birthplace. She didn't get a chance to return until she was a grandmother. Dugasse, 68, has spent most of her life in the Seychelles and the U.K., wondering what it would be like to set foot on the tropical island of Diego Garcia, part of the remote cluster of atolls in the middle of the Indian Ocean called the Chagos Islands. Like hundreds of others native to the islands, Dugasse was kicked out of her homeland more than half a century ago when the British and U.S. governments decided to build an important military base there. After years of fighting for the right to go home, Dugasse and other displaced islanders watched in despair Thursday as the U.K. government announced it was formally transferring the Chagos Islands' sovereignty to Mauritius. While political leaders spoke about international security and geopolitics, the deal meant only one thing for Chagossians: That the prospect of ever going back to live in their homeland now seems more out of reach than ever. 'We are the natives. We belong there,' said Dugasse, who has reluctantly settled in Crawley, a town south of London. 'It made me feel enraged because I want to go home.' Entire population evicted Dugasse was born on the Chagos Islands, which had been under the administration of Mauritius, a former British colony, until 1965, when Britain split them away from Mauritius. Mauritius gained independence in 1968, but the Chagos remained under British control and were named the British Indian Ocean Territory. Dugasse was barely 2 years old when her family was deported to the Seychelles in 1958 after her father, a laborer, allegedly broke a work contract. They were never allowed back. Throughout the 1960s, many other islanders who thought they were leaving temporarily – for a holiday, or medical treatment -- would be told they cannot return to the Chagos. It turned out that Britain was evicting the entire population of the Chago Islands -- about 1,500 people descended from African slaves and plantation workers –- so the U.S. military could build a base on the largest island, Diego Garcia. By 1973, all Indigenous Chagossians were forced to leave. Thousands of islanders and their descendants are now spread around the world, most living in Mauritius, the U.K. and Seychelles. Most want to return home. Britain's government has acknowledged that its removal of islanders was wrong, and has granted many citizenship and set aside some funds to improve their lives. But it continues to bar Chagossians from returning and living in their homeland, citing defense and security concerns and 'cost to the British taxpayer.' Although the British government this week finalized a deal to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos to Mauritius, ending a long contested colonial legacy, there is no upside for Chagossians. Dugasse and other islanders say they were completely excluded from political negotiations, and that Mauritius' government is unlikely to grant them any right to return. Under the deal, which still needs Parliament's approval, Britain will lease back the Diego Garcia military base for at least 99 years. That means the island will be off-limits for the foreseeable feature. 'I don't have a Mauritian passport. I don't want to affiliate myself with Mauritius,' she said. 'We have our own culture. We have our own identity. We are unique Indigenous people.' 'Every day I cried' Dugasse and another Diego Garcia native, Bertrice Pompe, sought to bring legal action against the British government over the deal to transfer the Chagos Islands to Mauritian control. They only managed to halt the signing of the deal by a few hours Thursday. Pompe said it was a 'very sad day' but she wasn't giving up. 'The rights we're asking for now, we've been fighting for for 60 years,' Pompe said outside a London courthouse. 'Mauritius is not going to give that to us. So we need to keep fighting with the British government to listen to us.' Human Rights Watch and other groups have urged Britain's government to recognize the Chagossians' right to return home, calling its failure to do so a 'continuing colonial crime against humanity.' Dugasse — who received British citizenship but said she got no other compensation — has been allowed back to Diego Garcia just twice in recent years. Both times the visits were only possible with special permission from the U.K. government. She described the island as a 'mini-America,' populated by American service members and Filipino staffers. She visited the church where her parents were married and where she was baptized, but found her village cemetery and school in ruins. And when she collected seashells and white sand from the beach, officials told her she wasn't allowed to bring those home. 'I told them no — (the shells and the sand) are mine, not yours,' she said. 'We were allowed there for only nine days, and every day I cried.' Dugasse said her elderly mother, who lives in the Seychelles, would like to die on Diego Garcia. She doesn't think that's possible — and she is pessimistic that any of her children or grandchildren will get a chance to see where their family came from. 'Are we Chagossians always going to be nomads, going from place to place?' she asked. 'Most of the natives are dying. What will happen? It's time for us to set foot home.'
