LONDON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The UK government has shelved legislation to ratify a deal to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after the United States withdrew its backing for the deal, highlighting strains in UK-U.S. relations, British media reported.
BBC quoted UK officials as saying that they are not entirely abandoning the agreement, which would hand sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius, but have run out of time to pass legislation to ratify the agreement within the current parliamentary session, which ends in the coming weeks.
Britain was forced to drop the bill because the United States didn't formally exchange letters to amend a 1966 British-American treaty on the islands, an essential step to transfer their sovereignty, according to Financial Times.
The Chagos Islands house a key U.S.-British military base. In 1965, Britain detached the archipelago from Mauritius, then a British colony, and leased Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago, to the United States as a joint U.S.-British military facility in the following year.
Under a deal announced in May 2025, Britain agreed to transfer sovereignty of the Islands to Mauritius, while leasing back Diego Garcia for 99 years.
Initially welcoming the deal, the United States reversed its stance earlier this year, with U.S. President Donald Trump describing the transfer as "an act of great stupidity."
The Guardian said that the latest setback in the UK's push to hand the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius is a sign of the worsening UK-U.S. relations after Trump's heavy criticism of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his handling of the Iran war, which began on Feb. 28 following joint U.S.-Israeli strikes against the country.
Trump has said he was "very disappointed" with Britain's decision not to join the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and its insistence that U.S. forces could use UK bases, including Diego Garcia, only for limited defensive operations against Iranian targets. ■
