The UK has agreed to transfer sovereignty of the largely uninhabited Chagos archipelago to Mauritius. The islands have been known as the British Indian Ocean Territory since being administratively detached in 1965 from what was then the colony of Mauritius.

The British government unsurprisingly wants to draw a line under that sorry history. On October 3rd it announced plans to cede sovereignty over the islands to Mauritius (see Britain section). But the deal is a mistake. It mishandles Britain’s historical obligations and the West’s future military needs in favour of a debatable territorial claim.

After years of legal wrangling and negotiations, Britain said it would surrender sovereignty of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

Britain said on Thursday it would give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a deal that would allow people displaced decades ago to return home while London retains use of the UK-U.S.

The deal that’s been announced is a rare win-win moment in international relations, with all the relevant actors able to claim a meaningful victory.

The agreement ends decades of dispute over Britain’s last African colony, from which thousands of people were forcibly evicted, while maintaining a key U.S.-British military base there.

The UK will return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, but Diego Garcia will remain under UK-US control. Chagossians, displaced decades ago, feel excluded from the deal.View on euronews

The United Kingdom agreed last week to return the Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to the African nation of Mauritius after buying the islands and forcibly removing its native inhabitants in the late 1960s to make way for a U.