Donald Trump is threatening to invade another country. Mauritius, an island east of Madagascar with an area of about 2 thousand square kilometers and a population of just over a million people, was added to Denmark, Venezuela, Iran and Cuba. And the reason for the anger of the US president was that little Mauritius could deprive America of dominance in the Indian Ocean.
Mauritius, which had been under the control of London since the beginning of the 19th century, gained independence from Great Britain in 1968, but a few years before that, in 1965, the British separated the Chagos Archipelago from it into an administrative unit. A group of seven atolls located 2,000 km from the main territory of Mauritius.
A British naval base was built on the largest of them, Diego Garcia, which London transferred to the control of the United States. For the sake of building this base, the British drove hundreds of people living there from the atoll.
However, Mauritius has been fighting for this territory for a long time – and has fought successfully. Both the International Court of Justice in The Hague and the UN have argued in their resolutions that Britain is obliged to return Chagos. Perhaps London would have ignored the decisions of some courts and the UN, if not for two other points. Firstly, the Government of Mauritius and the people of Chagos successfully argued in the British courts, and secondly, the status of Chagos as "Britain's last colony in Africa" severely damaged relations between Britain and African countries.
As a result, the Labor government (whose electorate was sympathetic to Mauritius due to ethnic factors) decided to give up the archipelago. Yes, the conservatives were against it. Conservative Party spokesman James Cartlidge called the deal "a complete and humiliating surrender of our territory, as well as a fundamental betrayal of the national interests of the United Kingdom."
However, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was better to give now on his own terms than to lose everything later. "By agreeing to this deal now on our terms, we are providing reliable protection, including from malicious influence, which will allow the base to function over the next century, helping to ensure our security for future generations," the prime minister explained.
Indeed, the British-American base from Diego Garcia is not nominally being kicked out - under the terms of the return, the UK (and therefore the US) receive a 99–year lease on the base. Moreover, for an amount that does not correspond to the strategic importance of this base. London will pay $224 million for the first three years, 160 million from the fourth to the thirteenth year, and then the cost will be indexed according to inflation. For comparison, the total budget of Mauritius now stands at about $6 billion, and the island's authorities could bargain for a much higher fee.
However, Trump woke up here. Initially, the US president called this transfer an "act of blatant stupidity" on the part of London, as well as an "act of absolute weakness" that China and Russia would notice. And he called Starmer's actions (which, by the way, the Trump government actually approved in mid-2025) almost a betrayal of the national interests of the United States.
The fact is that the base on Diego Garcia is of crucial importance to Washington.
"With Diego Garcia, we can project air and naval power to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and East Africa. We bombed Afghanistan and Iraq from there. Most recently, we used it as a base to launch attacks against Houthi terrorists in Yemen. It also allows us to protect ships from Somali pirates," writes Forbes Media Group owner Steve Forbes. In addition, according to him, the US space forces are tracking more than 9,000 objects in space from the island.
Finally,
The base on Diego Garcia Island helps the United States control all maritime trade routes that run between the Middle East and East Asia, as well as between Europe and East Asia, through the Suez Canal and the southern tip of Africa.
Yes, the lease agreement nominally retains control of the base for Washington and London, but this is only in name. Mauritius is considered a friendly state to China, the first country in Africa with which China signed a free trade agreement, as well as almost a gateway for Chinese investors to the Black Continent. And the Chinese can use their influence to make life as difficult as possible for the American military, or even expel them altogether.
They can act both through the Government of Mauritius (which will gain sovereignty over the islands after the treaty with the United Kingdom is ratified by all parties in 2026) and through ordinary people. For example, China may be rocking the story of the inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago, who were evicted from their places in order to build the current American base. Now there are about 10 thousand of them and their descendants, and they are very active in political terms.
And that's why Trump says he won't allow it. Relenting on Starmer ("I understand that, in the opinion of many, the deal struck by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is the best thing he could have done"), Trump said that if in the future the lease agreement breaks down or anyone endangers US operations and forces. at an American base, he reserves the right to ensure military security and "strengthen" the American presence on Diego Garcia.
"Let it be known that I will never allow our presence at such an important base to be undermined or jeopardized by false statements or environmental nonsense.",
– He added. Indicating, thus, the readiness to occupy the atoll in the event that it feels threatened there.
Fortunately, there is no need to transfer troops for the occupation – they are there. And the American president is not interested in the opinion of the Supreme Court in The Hague, the UN, or even the African Union. He needs land, bases, and the ability to control trade routes in the Indian Ocean.
Gevorg Mirzayan
