The British government said on Friday that sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago is a matter only between the United Kingdom and Mauritius, following objections raised by the Maldives.
In May 2025, the UK officially agreed to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius, ending over two centuries of British rule, in exchange for allowing the United States and UK to continue operating the strategically important Diego Garcia military base for the next 99 years.
But on Thursday, Maldivian President Dr Mohamed Muizzu told the Parliament that the government formally submitted objections to the UK on November 8, 2024 and January 18, 2026, rejecting the handover of Chagos to Mauritius.
He also announced the decision to retract a letter sent to Mauritius government by his predecessor, former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih back in 2022, acknowledging Mauritius’ sovereign authority over the Chagos archipelago following the country’s independence from British colonial rule.
In response to questions by Turkish news agency Anadolu over the objections raised by the Maldives, the British Foreign Office said in a statement on Friday that “various courts, rulings and institutions have made clear that the question of sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago is between the UK and Mauritius.”
The British Foreign Office added that the Diego Garcia treaty has "robust security provisions that categorically prevent compromises" to the Diego Garcia military base.
UK, which had severed the Chagos Islands from Mauritius before independence, claiming it to be a part of British-Indian Ocean Territory in the Indian Ocean, had forcibly deported over thousands of inhabitants of Diego Garcia, the largest of the 60 small islands in the archipelago, so that they could lease the island to the US for a military base.
Chagos Archipelago. (Photo/Getty Images)
Maldives became involved in the dispute as the country's exclusive economic zone overlaps with that of Chagos.
In April 2023, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) concluded that the 95,563 square kilometer area between Mauritius and Maldives would be divided between the two using the equidistance formula.
The ruling granted the Maldives 47,232 square kilometers, while awarding 45,331 square kilometers to Mauritius.
However, President Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) has long asserted that the Maldives is entitled to the entire 95,563 square kilometers.
On Thursday, President Muizzu reiterated his assertion that Solih’s administration of deliberately surrendering part of the Maldives’ maritime territory, and announced the decision to establish a presidential commission to conduct an inquiry into the previous administration’s handling of the Chagos dispute.
For the longest time, UK refused to comply with decisions by international bodies urging the handover of Chagos Islands to Mauritius – deeming the British occupation of the islands illegal. This included the 2019 decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ highest court.
In a turn of events, UK agreed to Mauritius regarding handover of Chagos in November 2022, and in 2025, the UK signed a multibillion-dollar deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands. The deal allowed Britain to retain control of the strategically important US-UK air base on Diego Garcia under a 99-year lease.