Trump considers buying Chagos Islands from Mauritius

Donald Trump is considering a plan to buy the Chagos Islands from Mauritius, according to the Guardian, a move that would try to bypass UK officials even as London has stalled a separate handover process. The report says the proposal—presented to Trump by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent—is not the leading option inside the administration, and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The Chagos question has always been less about beaches than basing rights. Diego Garcia, a US-UK military base on the archipelago, sits in the central Indian Ocean and has become more operationally salient since the US-Israel war with Iran began in early 2024. The Guardian reports that Iran has launched multiple strikes on the joint base since the war began, including one intercepted by a US warship in late March, and that the UK in March 2024 granted the US permission to launch missiles from Diego Garcia at Iranian missile launchers.

A purchase proposal would add a commercial wrapper to what is fundamentally a sovereignty dispute. For Washington to negotiate a purchase, the islands would first need to be made sovereign, the Guardian notes—a reminder that the legal status of the territory is the choke point, not the price tag. The UK has stalled plans to cede sovereignty, and previous legislation to hand the islands to Mauritius was shelved in April after the US withdrew support for that deal.

Inside the Trump administration, the objections described by the Guardian are framed in counterintelligence terms: officials have raised concerns about Mauritius’ relationship with China and the risk of espionage. That argument cuts both ways. A direct US purchase would reduce London’s leverage over an asset it has historically controlled, while leaving the local population’s claims to return and resettle as a separate, negotiable line item.

Those claims are not theoretical. A delegation of six Chagos refugees visited the UK last week, the Guardian reports, backing completion of the handover to Mauritius. Louis Olivier Bancoult, a leader of the Chagos Refugees Group, said the British government lacked real will to resolve the Chagossians’ situation, and emphasised their right to live in their birthplace.

As the UK delays one sovereignty transfer and Washington floats another, the archipelago remains what it has long been: a legal argument wrapped around a runway.

The Guardian’s report describes the purchase idea as one of several proposals under consideration, and not the administration’s preferred route.