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Donald Trump has signalled he’ll throw his assist behind the Chagos Islands deal negotiated between the UK and Mauritius, in a major win for Sir Keir Starmer.
Trump’s feedback got here as he hosted the British prime minister on the White Home on Thursday for bilateral talks over the way forward for Ukraine.
“I’ve to see the main points [of the Chagos Islands deal] however it doesn’t appear unhealthy . . . I feel we have a propensity to associate with your nation,” Trump mentioned as he sat beside Starmer within the Oval Workplace.
London has been braced for the Trump administration’s verdict on the proposed settlement, which might contain the UK handing sovereignty of the Indian Ocean territory to Mauritius in alternate for leasing again the archipelago’s largest island. The island homes an important US-UK joint navy base.
Below the draft deal, agreed by Mauritius, Britain would lease the atoll of Diego Garcia for an preliminary 99-year interval, with an choice to increase it for an additional 40 years.
Requested by a British reporter if he would approve the deal, Trump mentioned: “We’re going to have some discussions about that very quickly, and I’ve a sense it’s going to work out very effectively.
“They’re speaking a few very long-term, highly effective lease, a really robust lease, about 140 years truly — that’s a very long time, and I feel we’ll be inclined to associate with your nation,” he added. “It’s a bit bit early, we have now to be given the main points, however it doesn’t sound unhealthy.”
India, the regional energy with shut ties to Mauritius, has additionally backed the deal.
British officers mentioned the difficulty had not been raised by the US administration throughout preparations for the go to, suggesting that it was not a precedence for the brand new president.
Nonetheless, UK international secretary David Lammy mentioned this week that Britain was extending an efficient veto on the deal to Trump owing to its implications for US safety.
The Diego Garcia base has been a launch pad for long-range US bomber plane in latest many years and is taken into account an important listening publish within the area.
Senior Republican allies of Trump have been important of the deal hammered out between the UK and Mauritius, citing considerations that it might probably bolster Chinese language pursuits within the Indian Ocean.
Opposition MPs in Britain, together with Reform UK chief Nigel Farage, who’s a good friend of Trump, and Conservative get together chief Kemi Badenoch, have additionally heaped scorn on the deal, together with its price ticket of about £9bn for the preliminary 99-year lease.
The UK authorities has defended the deal, arguing that worldwide legal professionals have forged doubt over the longer term operations of the air base and port facility on Diego Garcia if a deal was not struck.
