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The White House is reportedly flirting with a plan to buy the Chagos Islands from Mauritius and bring the territory squarely under US control.
Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, the UK has held the Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago of dozens of islands in the central Indian Ocean, since 1814. The UK remains the sovereign owner today, though Mauritius has long contested that claim in international courts and has been widely expected to win a binding ruling handing the islands over. What makes the territory so coveted is a single atoll, Diego Garcia, home to a joint US-UK military base that was built after the islands’ original inhabitants were forcibly removed in the late 1960s and 1970s. Sitting in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the base puts long-range American bombers and missiles within reach of both the Middle East (it’s roughly 2,360 miles from Iran and was used to launch B-2 stealth raids on Tehran) and Southeast Asia, making it a linchpin for projecting power across the Middle East and countering China’s rising naval footprint. For nearly 60 years it’s been one of the most important and secretive military installations the US and UK share.
What’s going on now: US officials have mapped out a proposal, first reported by the Telegraph, that would cut the UK out of the equation and let Washington lock down Diego Garcia on its own terms. The idea is one of several options the administration has drafted as alternatives to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s plan to hand the islands to Mauritius, and it was reportedly floated directly to Trump by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, though sources say it isn’t his “leading” option.
To buy the islands, the US would first have to let Starmer’s deal go through, transferring sovereignty to Mauritius, and then negotiate a purchase directly. Under the arrangement, the UK would cede the territory and lease Diego Garcia back for roughly $45 billion over 99 years, but the US pulled its support in January and the UK shelved the deal in April, with Trump blasting it as “great stupidity.”
Part of what soured Trump on the original plan, according to the Telegraph, was Starmer blocking American forces from attacking Iran from Diego Garcia in the first hours of the war. Administration officials have also raised a deeper worry that letting a China ally like Mauritius take over the waters around the base could turn the place into an easy target for sea-based spying.
This all comes as the UK has pushed back on the speculation, with one minister insisting there’s “no scenario” where the US ends up owning the islands and the government calling itself “committed to the deal.”
The White House has declined to confirm the report.
