PORT LOUIS, June 8 (Reuters) – Mauritius said on Monday that it had not received any proposal from the Trump administration on the Chagos Islands, after the Telegraph reported that the White House was considering a plan to buy the islands from Mauritius.
“The Mauritian government has taken note of the information reported by the Telegraph. As at today, it has not received any official proposal and has not been approached, either directly or indirectly, by the US administration regarding a separate agreement concerning Diego Garcia or the Chagos Archipelago,” it said in a statement.
“Mauritius’s position remains unchanged: its sovereignty over the Chagos (Archipelago) is non-negotiable.”
The Telegraph reported on Sunday that the plan was among several options being drafted by the White House, in a paper aimed at providing alternatives to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ceding sovereignty of the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius.
Britain’s government in April put on hold its deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, home to the U.S.-British Diego Garcia air base, which had been criticized by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump said in February the agreement was a “big mistake.”
Britain forcibly displaced up to 2,000 indigenous Chagossians in the late 1960s and 1970s to establish the base on the Diego Garcia atoll, but had last year agreed to give sovereignty to former colony Mauritius while paying 101 million pounds ($135 million) per year to secure the installation.
($1 = 0.7500 pounds)
(Reporting by Villen Anganan; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alexander Winning)
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