UK Takes U-Turn, To Review Chagos Islands Deal After Trump Calls It ‘Ridiculous’

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has agreed to review the Chagos Islands deal after US President Donald Trump called the UK-Mauritius agreement “terrible” and “ridiculous”, creating an early foreign policy challenge for Britain's new leader.

Trump raised the issue during his first meeting with Burnham on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. Calling the islands strategically important, Trump said, “I think the prime minister is going to be looking at it.” Burnham responded, “yeah.”

Burnham later said he was doing “everything possible to find a resolution” and stressed the importance of securing the future of the Diego Garcia military base.

“I've inherited the situation, and we need a resolution. It's critical to safeguard the future of the base, and that matters to us for security reasons, but also clearly to the United States as well,” Burnham said.

The UK and Mauritius reached an understanding in 2024 under which Britain would transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, a group of about 60 islands in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius while retaining a 99-year lease for Diego Garcia, the largest island and home to a strategically important British-American military base.

Britain has argued that the arrangement would secure the long-term future of the base. Former prime minister Keir Starmer, who signed the deal, said it was necessary because continued British sovereignty could eventually be challenged through international legal proceedings. Critics have argued that transferring sovereignty could weaken British and wider Western security interests in the Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific.

Trump's latest position represents a reversal. In February 2024, he said the proposed long-term lease “doesn't sound bad” and indicated that Washington would be inclined to support Britain after reviewing the details. Trump approved the agreement in April 2025, but later reversed course and called Britain's plan to transfer the territory an “act of great stupidity”, linking it to his wider national security arguments over Greenland.

The dispute intensified after Trump's latest criticism. British Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said the agreement cannot proceed without US support and confirmed that payments to Mauritius under the proposed arrangement have been put on hold while London considers the way forward.

Trump and Burnham also discussed the Iran conflict, the Strait of Hormuz, Ukraine and the Falkland Islands. Burnham had authorised limited British military assistance to Saudi Arabia to help counter attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and said he would press Trump for greater US support for Ukraine, including air-defence assistance.