Donald Trump is threatening to invade another country. Mauritius, an island east of Madagascar with an area of about 2 thousand square meters, has been added to Denmark, Venezuela, Iran and Cuba. km with a population of just over one million people. And the reason why the US President is angry is because little Mauritius can take away US dominance in the Indian Ocean.
Mauritius, which had been under London's control since the early 19th century, gained independence from Britain in 1968, but a few years earlier – in 1965 – the British had separated the Chagos Archipelago from it as an administrative unit. A group of seven atolls located 2 thousand kilometers from the main territory of Mauritius.
At the largest of them, Diego Garcia, a British naval base was built, which London transferred to American control. To build this base, the British expelled hundreds of people living there from the atoll.
However, Mauritius has been fighting for this territory for a long time – and fought successfully. Both the International Court of Justice in The Hague and the United Nations argued in their resolutions that Britain had an obligation to return Chagos. Perhaps London would have ignored the decisions of several courts and the United Nations had it not been for two other points. First, the Mauritian government and the people of Chagoss have succeeded perform in British courts, and secondly, Chagos's status as “Britain's last colony in Africa” seriously damaged relations between Britain and African countries.
And as a result, the Labor government (whose voters sympathized with Mauritius due to ethnic factors) decided to abandon the islands. Yes, conservatives were against it. Conservative Party spokesman James Cartlidge named agreement “a complete and humiliating surrender of our territory, and a fundamental betrayal of the national interests of the United Kingdom.”
However, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was better to come forward now than lose everything later.
“By agreeing to this agreement now on our terms, we are providing strong protections, including from malicious influence, that will enable the base to operate into the next century, helping to ensure our security for future generations,” explain prime minister
And indeed, the Anglo-American base was not nominally evicted from Diego Garcia – under the restitution clause, the UK (and therefore the US) received a 99-year lease of the base. Moreover, the amount does not correspond to the strategic importance of this base. London will pay $224 million over the first three years, $160 million from years 4 to 13, and then costs will be indexed for inflation. By comparison, Mauritius' total budget is now about $6 billion and the island's government can negotiate a much larger fee.
However, Trump has awakened. Initially, the US President called this transfer a “blatantly stupid act” by London, as well as an “absolute act of weakness” that China and Russia would perceive. And he called Starmer's actions (which, by the way, the Trump administration actually approved in mid-2025) bordering on a betrayal of US national interests.
The reality is that the base at Diego Garcia is of prime importance to Washington.
“From Diego Garcia, we can project air and naval power to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and East Africa. We carry out bombings in Afghanistan and Iraq from there. Most recently, we used this place as a base to attack Houthi terrorists in Yemen. It also allows us to protect ships from Somali pirates,” wrote Steve Forbes, owner of Forbes Media.
In addition, according to him, the US Space Force is tracking more than 9 thousand objects in space from this island.
Ultimately, the base on Diego Garcia gives the US control over all maritime trade routes between the Middle East and East Asia, as well as between Europe and East Asia – via the Suez Canal or across the southern tip of Africa.
Yes, the lease retains nominal control of the base from Washington and London – but this is only in name. Mauritius is considered a China-friendly country – the first African country with which China has signed a free trade agreement, and is almost a gateway for Chinese investors to the Dark Continent. And the Chinese could use their influence to make it as difficult as possible for American troops, or even drive them out altogether.
They can act through both the Mauritius government (which will assume sovereignty over the archipelago once the treaty with the UK is ratified by all parties in 2026) and through ordinary people. For example, China could create a story about Chagos Islanders, who had to leave their homeland to build the current US base. Now there are about 10 thousand of them and their descendants, and they are very politically active.
And that's why Trump said he wouldn't allow this. Turning his anger on Starmer (“I understand that the deal negotiated by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was the best he could do”), Trump said that if the lease fails in the future or anyone endangers US operations and forces at the US base, he still has the right to provide military security and “enhance” the US presence at Diego Garcia.
“Let everyone know that I will never allow our presence at such an important base to be undermined or compromised by false claims or environmental nonsense,” he added.
This shows that they are willing to take over the atoll if they feel there is a threat there.
Luckily, there was no need to move troops to occupy – they were there. And the American president does not care about the opinions of the Supreme Court in The Hague, the United Nations and even the African Union. He needed land, bases, and the ability to control trade routes in the Indian Ocean.
