The status of Diego Garcia — an island in the Indian Ocean’s Chagos Archipelago that is home to a joint U.S.-U.K. military base — is roiling Washington-London ties as the Trump administration mulls possible military strikes on Iran. Military experts are renewing their attacks on the U.K.’s move in 2025 to cede control of Chagos to Mauritius as a threat to U.S. national security by potentially impeding U.S. access to Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia. The facility has been a staging point for American military operations in the Middle East for decades. China hawks warn that the deal may enable Beijing to wield economic pressure on Mauritius to block U.S. access to the base. China and Mauritius sealed a free trade deal in 2019 and the island nation touted its value to Beijing as “a strategic regional platform ” in July. That influence may allow Beijing to “incrementally encroach on Diego Garcia and render the base operationally irrelevant,” BRENT SADLER , who led Maritime Strategy and Policy at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command from 2012-2015 and is now at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, told NatSec Daily. That criticism follows President DONALD TRUMP ’s assertion that the U.K. risks “losing control” of the base in a social media post last week — and at exactly the wrong time. U.K. Prime Minister KEIR STARMER shouldn’t give away Diego Garcia at a time when the U.S. may need it for military action “should Iran decide not to make a deal,” Trump said. Starmer’s government pushed back by declaring the agreement is “the only way to guarantee the long-term future” of the base, per BBC last week . The text of the U.K.-Mauritius agreement guarantees “unrestricted access, basing and overflight for United Kingdom and United States of America aircraft and vessels.” Starmer has denied Trump’s request to use the facility to attack Iran, The Times newspaper reported last week . The White House didn't respond to a request for comment about that report. MARK MONTGOMERY , the former director of operations at U.S. Pacific Command, told NatSec Daily it’s “suboptimal to find out that one of the facilities that was somewhere in your strike plan is no longer available.” He added: “It’s not the same as having an aircraft carrier have a maintenance issue and have to go off-station, but it has an operational impact.” NatSec Daily asked the British embassy in Washington and the embassy of Mauritius for comment. Neither responded. Trump’s comments were particularly surprising because they contradicted the State Department’s support of the agreement a day earlier (State didn’t reply to NatSec Daily’s request for comment). Trump’s social media post reflects “the policy of the Trump administration,” White House spokesperson KAROLINE LEAVITT told reporters last week when asked why Trump disagreed with State’s assessment. If the U.S. starts to feel its access to Diego Garcia is threatened, there’s a chance the administration would up its pressure campaign against the U.K. deal, or even seize the base, ARZAN TARAPORE , former Australian military liaison to the U.S. during the Obama administration, told NatSec Daily. “In a shooting war, either in the Middle East or West Pacific, the U.S. will not abide any loss of access to Diego. It will fight for it. Legal status, whether a lease or sovereignty, won’t matter,” Tarapore said. |