US Presidnt Donald Trump has weighed in on the Chagos Island debacle, calling UKs deal, giving up sovereignty of the island ‘weak and stupid’.
UK had established a UK-US military base in Diego Garcia, forcibly displacing thousands of indigenous Chagossians in the process.
Britain retains control of the base thanks to a 99-year lease but a ruling last year handed the Indian Ocean islands to Mauritius, former British colony which is pays $136 million per year to secure the installation.
The Diego Garcia base has een used by US bombers to target Yemen and Afghanistan in the past.
Trump said Britain’s ”act of total weakness and great stupidity” letting go of the Archipelago informs his ambition for the acquisition of Greenland, which is under the sovereignty of fellow NATO member Denmark.
The US leader described UK’s planned withdrawal from the island as shocking and warnd that NATO’s natural rivals are watching this unfold.
“There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness … The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired” he wrote on Truth Social.
Relations between London and the White House have turned somewhat sour in recent months as Trump maintains his rhetoric over acquiring Greenland, putting his country at odds with NATO members in Europe who condemned his ambition as dangerous expansionism.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been particularly critical of Trump’s Greenland ambition in view of alleged territorial encroachment by China and Russia.
The Chagos contains six main atolls with some 600 tropical islands, located 500 km south of the Maldives/
It is midway between Africa and Indonesia.
WN/as/APA