US President Donald Trump, sitting alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the Oval Office on Thursday, signalled he supported Britain’s plan to transfer control of a group of small but strategically vital Indian Ocean islands to Mauritius.
“I have a feeling it’s going to work out very well,” Trump said, adding that “we’ll be inclined to go along with your country”.
Just minutes before his bilateral meeting with Starmer, the US president told reporters the issue would be on the agenda.
“I think it’s a little bit early. We have to be given the details, but it doesn’t sound bad,” he said.
Trump’s support defies the wishes of several fellow Republican Party members as well as his allies in Britain who worry about China’s potential influence on the archipelago, home to key US-British military facility, mindful of Beijing’s close ties with Mauritius.
At the heart of the dispute sit the Chagos Islands, once part of Mauritius and controlled by Britain after Mauritius gained independence in 1968.
