Trump criticizes the handover of the Chagos Islands and links it to the Greenland issue
US President Donald Trump has launched a scathing attack on the United Kingdom, calling its decision to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius a “great folly.” Trump’s remarks, made via his social media platform Truth Social, asserted that London’s relinquishment of this strategic territory represents a negative step in the record of Western national security.
In his controversial post, Trump wrote: “The UK’s abandonment of such vital territory is a great act of foolishness, and yet another of a very long list of national security reasons why we should acquire Greenland.” Trump’s statement links the loss of influence in the Indian Ocean to his long-standing, renewed ambition to purchase the Danish island of Greenland to bolster American influence in the Arctic.
Background to the historic agreement between Britain and Mauritius
Trump's attack comes in response to the agreement announced in 2024, under which the British government agreed to cede sovereignty over the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius after decades of legal and diplomatic disputes. Britain had separated the islands from Mauritius before the latter's independence in 1968, displacing the islands' native inhabitants to create a joint military base with the United States.
The strategic importance of the Diego Garcia base
The sensitivity of this issue lies in Diego Garcia, the largest island in the archipelago, which hosts a crucial US military base. This base plays a pivotal role in US military operations in the Middle East, South Asia, and East Africa. Although the British-Mauritian agreement guarantees that the base will remain under US and British administration for the next 99 years, Trump views the transfer of sovereignty itself as a geopolitical weakness.
Dimensions of international conflict and geopolitical concerns
The British decision was not spontaneous, but rather a response to mounting international pressure, including an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice and resolutions from the UN General Assembly calling for an end to British administration of the archipelago. However, this handover raises concerns among some hawks in Washington and London about China's growing influence in the Indian Ocean, with some fearing that rival powers might exploit their ties with Mauritius to gain access to sensitive Western military assets in the region.
Trump’s linking of Chagos and Greenland reflects his vision of a foreign policy based on major “real estate deals” and expanding the geographic reach of direct American influence, considering the preservation of strategic territories as the cornerstone of global hegemony.
