Trump says UK’s Starmer making ‘a big mistake’ with Chagos Islands deal

The US president warned the military base on Diego Garcia may be needed to respond to possible attack from Iran.Published On 18 Feb 2026Donald Trump has criticised the United Kingdom’s plan to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, a day after the United States Department of State gave its official approval of the deal.The US president said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Keir Starmer was “making a big mistake” in the agreement to return sovereignty of the archipelago to Mauritius, and lease back the island of Diego Garcia, which is home to a UK-US military base.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3UK’s Starmer announces crackdown on AI chatbots in child safety pushlist 2 of 3India beat Netherlands to clean sweep group before T20 World Cup Super 8slist 3 of 3Leila Shahid, Palestinian diplomat, dies in France aged 76end of listHe warned in a Truth Social post that Starmer was “losing control of this important Island by claims of entities never known of before”, adding: “In our opinion, they are fictitious in nature.”The Indian Ocean archipelago became part of British territory in 1814, with the UK detaching it from Mauritius before it gained independence in the 1960s. It then worked with the US to force the islands’ residents to leave, in order to build a military base on Diego Garcia, which it had leased to the US.Mauritius won its legal battle for sovereignty over the islands in 2019, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) urged the UK to cede control. This was followed by a UN resolution giving the UK six months to hand the islands back.The UK will maintain a 99-year lease of Diego Garcia with an option to extend, which will cost around 100 million pounds ($135m) a year.A spokesperson for the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said on Wednesday that the deal was “crucial to the security of the UK and our key allies, and to keeping the British people safe.”