{"id":1193456,"date":"2026-09-08T15:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1193456\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T15:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:55:18","slug":"maldives-asks-uk-to-reopen-sovereignty-talks-over-chagos-islands-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1193456\/","title":{"rendered":"Maldives asks UK to reopen sovereignty talks over Chagos Islands | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chagos Islands should not be handed over to Mauritius, president of Maldives says in letter to UK\u2019s prime minister.<\/p>\n

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Published On 8 Sep 20268 Sep 2026<\/p>\n

Maldives \u2060President Mohamed Muizzu has written to UK \u2060Prime Minister Andy Burnham, asking \u2060him to reopen talks over the sovereignty of the \u200cChagos Islands rather than handing over the islands to Mauritius.<\/p>\n

In a statement released on Tuesday by the Maldives\u2019 presidential office, Muizzu emphasised \u201cthe importance of meaningful dialogue between the UK and the Maldives on matters concerning the sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The Maldives government maintains that its own claim to the Chagos Islands is backed by historical ties and geographical proximity, being about 500km (310 miles) away while Mauritius is more than four times that distance.<\/p>\n

These islands are home to the key UK-US military base on the island of Diego Garcia<\/a>. It is the largest island in the archipelago<\/a>, a strategic location in the middle of the Indian Ocean between Asia and Africa, and home to a military base that the UK leases to the US in a 99-year deal.<\/p>\n

In his letter, Muizzu \u201cexpressed the Maldives\u2019 concerns regarding the UK\u2019s decision to proceed with the handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius\u201d.<\/p>\n

Burnham\u2019s predecessor, Keir Starmer, had finalised a deal<\/a> in May 2025 to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands<\/a> to Mauritius. The multibillion-dollar agreement would allow the UK to maintain control of the strategically important US-UK airbase on Diego Garcia.<\/p>\n

However, in his latest letter, Muizzu said he was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d that the UK did not \u2060consult the Maldives \u2060when Starmer agreed to cede sovereignty \u200cof the archipelago to Mauritius, and urged Burnham to \u201crectify this oversight by your predecessor\u201d.<\/p>\n

Muizzu went on to highlight \u201cthe shared history and cultural ties between the Maldives and Chagos, as well as the Maldives\u2019 longstanding support for major marine conservation and scientific research expeditions in the region\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last April, the UK set aside Starmer\u2019s bill<\/a> that would return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius due to a lack of support from United States President Donald Trump, as Mauritius promised to \u201cspare no effort\u201d to reclaim the archipelago.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson of the UK\u2019s Foreign Office was quoted on Tuesday by the Press Association news agency as saying that \u201cthe question of sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago is a matter for the UK and Mauritius, which is why the previous government launched negotiations with Mauritius on the issue in 2022, rather than with the Maldives\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chagos Islands should not be handed over to Mauritius, president of Maldives says in letter to UK\u2019s prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1193457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[2740,521,748,393,299,4884,18138,54314,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-1193456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-africa","tag-asia","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-great-britain","tag-maldives","tag-mauritius","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117236239511881318","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1193456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1193457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1193456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1193456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1193456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}