US President Donald Trump has slammed the United Kingdom’s move to transfer control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, arguing the move is one more reason for his ambitions to control Greenland.
The UK confirmed its decision last May to return the islands to the African country, while maintaining control of the US-UK Diego Garcia military base.
At the time, Trump criticized the move, which gives control of the land surrounding a key US military location to a close trading partner of China.
“There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness,” Trump wrote on Truth Social early on Tuesday morning, adding that the UK was “giving away” the island “FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.”
He added that the UK’s decision was “an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired. Denmark and its European Allies have to DO THE RIGHT THING.”
The UK defended its deal after Trump’s criticism, saying it acted because the future operation of the military base had been threatened by court decisions.
“We will never compromise on our national security,” a British government spokesperson told CNN in a statement. “This deal secures the operations of the joint US-UK base on Diego Garcia for generations.”
For more context: Britain has controlled the region since 1814, and in 1965 it split the Chagos Islands from Mauritius before that former colony became independent. London kept control of the archipelago and renamed it the British Indian Ocean Territory.
It then evicted almost 2,000 residents to Mauritius and the Seychelles to create space for the Diego Garcia airbase. The secretive base is important to Washington’s interests, giving it a significant military presence in the Indian Ocean.
This post has been updated with the UK’s response to Trump’s comments.
