THE Maldives has formally told Britain that it will not accept the agreement under which the UK plans to give control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the BBC reported.
The office of Maldivian president Mohamed Muizzu said that his government had raised its objections twice in writing, in November 2024 and again in January 2026, and in a phone call with deputy prime minister David Lammy last December.
During that call, Muizzu warned Lammy that "any transfer of the archipelago must account for Maldivian interests".
In a detailed statement to the BBC, Muizzu's office said Britain's decision to proceed by consulting only Mauritius, without considering the Maldives' position, was "deeply concerning".
"The Maldives has formally communicated that it does not recognise the transfer of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius," the statement noted.
The government added that its stance was rooted in what it described as deep historical and administrative ties between the Maldives and the islands, and the implications any transfer would have for Maldivian sovereignty.
The Maldives, a string of tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, argues it has historical claims to the Chagos archipelago stretching back centuries and is now considering taking the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Its government said it would "pursue all available avenues for a formal submission" to the court.
The UK government has pushed back. Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said the question of who holds sovereignty over the Chagos Islands was a matter for Britain and Mauritius alone. A government source said that international courts had already looked at the sovereignty question and sided with Mauritius.
The Chagos Islands, officially called the British Indian Ocean Territory, have been under British control since the early 19th century. Last year, the UK agreed to hand the territory to Mauritius, which has long claimed the islands, in exchange for a lease on a joint UK-US military base there at an average cost of £101 million a year.
Labour ministers argued that without a deal, international legal rulings could put the future of the base at risk.
However, the agreement has not been written into UK law and appears to be stalled. US president Donald Trump urged prime minister Sir Keir Starmer in February not to give up the territory, saying the land "should not be taken away from the UK", despite the US State Department having formally backed the deal.
A 2019 ICJ advisory opinion found that Britain's separation of the Chagos Islands from Mauritius in 1965 was unlawful and called on the UK to end its administration as quickly as possible.
Though not legally binding, the opinion prompted a near-unanimous vote at the UN General Assembly demanding the islands be returned to Mauritius. A further ruling by an international maritime tribunal in 2023 reinforced Mauritius's position.
If the Maldives were to file a legal case, it would add a further complication to an already fraught process. Many Chagossians also oppose the deal, arguing they want Britain to keep sovereignty so they may one day return to their homeland.
The Conservatives and Reform UK have both come out firmly against the agreement.
