UK, Mauritius say good progress made in Chagos Islands talks

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LONDON (Reuters) -Britain and Mauritius said on Monday there had been good progress in talks to finalise a deal over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, including a U.S.-British military base, with London hoping for sign-off before Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Britain struck a deal in October to hand over control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while retaining control of the military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, under a 99-year lease – an agreement that needs to be ratified.

Since then, an ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and new Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam have publicly criticised the deal.

Ramgoolam said last month his government wanted to renegotiate the deal. Britain has said the deal works for all sides.

British media have reported that London has offered to frontload a tranche of payments to Mauritius for the lease of the strategically important military base.

A UK-Mauritius joint statement provided by the British government on Monday reiterated London’s position that good progress had been made and discussions were ongoing to reach an agreement that was in both sides’ interests. It offered no new details.

“Both countries reiterated their commitment to concluding a treaty providing that Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago; and that would ensure the long-term, secure and effective operation of the base on Diego Garcia,” it said.

Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Marco Rubio, his pick as secretary of state, has said the deal poses a threat to U.S. security by ceding the archipelago – with its base used by U.S. long-range bombers and warships – to a country allied with China.

(Reporting by Sarah Young, writing by Sachin Ravikumar and Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Catarina Demony and Timothy Heritage)