U.S. must press U.K. to keep military base out of China hands

By U.S. Sen. John Kennedy 
R-Louisiana

While President Trump was meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, America’s most important asset in deterring China is under attack from an unlikely source: leftists at the United Nations and their British sympathizers.

Officials in the United Kingdom are considering handing over the keys of the Chagos Islands, including the joint U.S.-U.K. military base on the island of Diego Garcia, to Mauritius, an African island nation that lacks any ability to deter China.

Diego Garcia has become a vital asset for the U.S. military to conduct training missions, reload submarines, and respond to tensions throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Our enemies understand that Diego Garcia is a pillar of America’s national security. That’s why it has been a target of Iran’s ballistic missile attacks.

America can defend our interests on Diego Garcia today because the Chagos Islands are British territory.

The leftists at the United Nations, however, want to change that. They unleashed a pressure campaign to shame the U.K. for maintaining any territory outside of Europe. The International Court of Justice—the U.N.’s kangaroo court—published a nonbinding opinion in 2021 calling for the U.K. to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which is more than 1,200 miles away and has no shared history.

Sadly, the U.K. bought into this foolishness and has attempted to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Instead of owning the land upon which our most important joint military base rests, U.K. officials attempted to strike a deal to give Diego Garcia to Mauritius and then lease it back from them for around $136 million per year.

Not only is this a terrible financial deal, but it’s also disastrous for our shared national security because Mauritius is slowly becoming a puppet of the Chinese Communist Party.

First, Mauritius signed the Chinese-backed Pelindaba Treaty, otherwise known as the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone treaty, which prohibits the research, stockpiling, and possession of nuclear weapons across the African continent. Then, Mauritius joined the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation trade and its 2024 Beijing Action Plan, which could mean that Mauritius is under a binding legal obligation to provide China with the opportunity to force inspections of the military equipment on Diego Garcia. Finally, China entered into extensive trade deals with Mauritius to sweeten the deal.

Mauritius has already shown that it will act in China’s interest. Two weeks ago, Mauritius revoked flight permits for Taiwan’s presidential aircraft to cross its airspace on a planned trip to visit allies, apparently at China’s behest.

There is no military asset as important as Diego Garcia when it comes to America’s ability to deter China, protect Taiwan, and otherwise maintain our interests in the Indo-Pacific. It would be weapons-grade stupid to sit by as the U.K. signs it away to a nation in Xi Jinping’s pocket.

I have a bill that would require Congress to approve any deal ceding sovereignty of Diego Garcia to Mauritius. Until that passes, the Trump administration must maintain its pressure on the U.K. to protect Diego Garcia and our ability to project strength against China.