The last colony in Africa may change the rules of the game in space

Britain giving up a colony sounds like news from 70 years ago, but last week the kingdom reached an agreement on the transfer of the Chagos Archipelago, the last British territory in Africa, to Mauritius. The remote archipelago includes more than 60 islands and only has about 3,000 inhabitants.

The Chagos issue has been going on since 1965, when Britain decided to separate the archipelago from Mauritius, which is about 2,000 km away from it, and gained independence three years later. From the “British Indian Ocean Territory”, as they called it in London after they paid 3 million pounds To Mauritius ($8.4 million in the 1960s), in the early 1970s, about 2,000 residents were deported to Mauritius and the Seychelles Islands, with the aim of establishing an air force base on the largest island, Diego Garcia. Britain leased the base to the United States, and it is still operated by the American Navy. The consideration Britain received, according to The Economist, was a discount on the purchase of nuclear weapons.

“Locals were forced to leave”

The reason why the archipelago is considered so strategic is precisely its unique and remote location, about 3,000 km east of Africa, while the nearest significantly populated place to it is Sri Lanka, about 1,700 km northeast of it. More than 50 species of sharks can be found among the 60 Chagos Islands, but that base in Diego Garcia has remained its main symbol for the past five decades. During this period, American planes took off from Chagos to attack various targets in Afghanistan and the two Gulf Wars.

A turning point was reached about five years ago, when the International Court of Justice ruled that Britain should give up its holdings in the archipelago. The judges of the tribunal even stated that the British forced locals to leave their homes. As part of Britain’s agreement with Mauritius, although sovereignty will be transferred to the African country and locals will be able to return to their homes, London has retained its authority based on Diego Garcia.

As part of that agreement, the area of ​​the base will remain British and under American control on a lease for 99 years. On the other hand, Britain gave up its authority in a strategic and extensive water area. The definition of an archipelago is very important in the international law of the sea, because in them even a rock (an island that does not allow human habitation) is considered part of the baselines. Thus, a large area of ​​internal waters was created, where the local state determines the shipping routes, and in fact has full sovereignty – which Britain gave up.

Claims of “giving in to pressure”

The move that was influenced by the tribunal’s decision led to criticism in Britain and the US, mainly due to the fear of Beijing. The Chagos Archipelago is in a strategic location, partly for international trade. It is located in an area through which the lion’s share of Chinese exports to Europe pass, and the agreement between Britain and Mauritius was signed three Years after the administration in Port Louis signed a free trade agreement with Beijing, Mauritius will now have the authority to enter the area, fearing that the Chinese, disguised as fishermen, will gather intelligence.

In the UK, the shadow government’s defense minister and the one running for the leadership of the Conservatives, Tom Tugandhat, warned that the transfer of the archipelago to Mauritius “opens up the possibility that China will gain a military foothold in the Indian Ocean”. In the US, Senator Marco Rubio warned that the deal “will provide China with an opportunity to gather valuable intelligence on our naval facility.” Former President Donald Trump supporter Senator Jim Risch, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, sees the agreement as one that succumbed to pressure from the International Court of Justice. at the expense of the interests of the USA and the UK. “The United States and our allies are required to conduct a long-term policy regarding the decisions that affect our strategic competition with China,” Rish said. “Otherwise, we will all lose.”

Washington knows the data. The volume of Mauritius’ exports to China is quite negligible ($26.3 million in 2023), but the country’s imports from China reached a record of $978 million last year. For the purpose of comparison, in 2013 the scope of Mauritius’ imports from Beijing was 649 million dollars and in 2003 it was only 107 million dollars. The segmentation of Mauritius’ imports indicates that the main areas were mechanical products, electronic equipment, furniture and household goods, plastics and vehicles.

In contrast to Chagos, China already has a prominent foothold in Mauritius itself. It was a Chinese company that built the main terminal at Sir Sivagasgur Ramgolam Airport, which was completed in 2013. The work was carried out with the help of a loan from Beijing in the amount of 260 million dollars, with its total cost of 390 million dollars spread over 20 years. Among the other strategic infrastructures it built for Mauritius are the headquarters of the Public Broadcasting Corporation and a dam. This trend also continued recently, when in December Mauritius and China made a currency exchange transaction amounting to 281 million dollars.

In the coming years, the Chinese presence in Mauritius is expected to deepen, through the energy sector. The administration in Fort Louis has set an ambitious production target of 60% renewable energy in 2030. This may be a far-fetched goal, although the population of Madagascar is only about 1.3 million people, but solar panel manufacturers from China have already taken advantage of this in order to gain a foothold in the country. The entry of Chinese citizens into Mauritius does not challenge the Chinese companies, because there is a visa exemption agreement between the countries.

Therefore, in conclusion, an archipelago that until a few years ago was not known in most parts of the world, is expected to continue to grab headlines in the coming years. All the more so if the fears about a Chinese presence in Chagos turn out to be true.