[🇺🇸] The USA and U.K. Strategic Partnership

[Saif]

Date of Event: Jan 21, 2026

Source: https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/world/trump-calls-uks-chagos-deal-with-mauritius-stupid-and-weak

Trump calls UK's Chagos deal with Mauritius 'stupid' and 'weak''

REUTERS
Published :
Jan 21, 2026 00:01
Updated :
Jan 21, 2026 00:01

An undated file photo shows Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago and site of a major United States military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean leased from Britain in 1966. REUTERS/HO/U.S. Navy/File Photo

U.S. President Donald Trump lambasted Britain's deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago - including an island with an important U.S.-UK air base - as an act of "total weakness" and "great stupidity" that underlines why he wants to acquire Greenland.

Washington last year gave its blessing to the deal, which gave the Indian Ocean islands to Mauritius but retained UK control of the Diego Garcia base under a 99-year lease.

But Trump reversed that with a typically blunt Truth Social post saying: "Shockingly, our 'brilliant' NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER."

He added: "There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness ... The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired."

Trump's attack heaps new strain on relations with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who this week spoke out against his ambition to take over Greenland by any means to counter the encroaching presence of rivals China and Russia.

Responding to Trump's Chagos comments, the British government said the deal was made precisely for national security reasons. "We acted because the base on Diego Garcia was under threat after court decisions undermined our position and would have prevented it operating as intended in future," a spokesperson said.

The Chagos' six main atolls, among more than 600 islands, lie 500 km (300 miles) south of the Maldives and halfway between Africa and Indonesia, with about 4,000 people stationed there.

Britain forcibly displaced up to 2,000 indigenous Chagossians in the late 1960s and 1970s to establish the base on the Diego Garcia atoll, but has given sovereignty to former colony Mauritius which it is paying 101 million pounds ($136 million) per year to secure the installation.

Responding to Trump's remarks, Mauritius Attorney General Gavin Glover said that his country's sovereignty over the archipelago had been unequivocally recognised by international law, and it "should no longer be subject to debate".

"We expect the implementation of the treaty (deal with Britain) within the shortest possible time frames, in accordance with the commitments undertaken," Glover said in a statement.​

 

[Saif]

UK defends Chagos deal after Trump accuses London of ‘great stupidity’

The UK government said on Tuesday its deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius ‘secures’ the future of a key US-UK military base on the Indian Ocean archipelago..

www.newagebd.net

UK defends Chagos deal after Trump accuses London of ‘great stupidity’
Agence France-Presse . London 20 January, 2026, 23:53

The UK government said on Tuesday its deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius ‘secures’ the future of a key US-UK military base on the Indian Ocean archipelago, after US president Donald Trump accused Britain of ‘great stupidity’.

The US president’s comments mark a major change of position for Trump, who previously endorsed the deal when it was signed in May 2025.

‘The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired,’ Trump posted on his Truth Social platform earlier on Tuesday.

The harsh comments follow Trump’s threat to slap tariffs on Britain and other European countries for defending Greenland’s sovereignty from Washington.

The Chagos agreement will see Britain hand the archipelago to its former colony and pay to lease a key US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island, for a century.

‘This deal secures the operations of the joint US-UK base on Diego Garcia for generations, with robust provisions for keeping its unique capabilities intact and our adversaries out,’ Downing Street said in response to Trump’s criticism.

‘It has been publicly welcomed by the US, Australia and all other Five Eyes allies, as well as key international partners including India, Japan and South Korea,’ a government spokesperson added.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said in May that Washington ‘welcomes the historic agreement’.

‘The Trump Administration determined that this agreement secures the long-term, stable, and effective operation of the joint US-UK military facility at Diego Garcia,’ Rubio said in a statement at the time.

‘The treaty has been signed with the Mauritian government. So I can’t reverse the clock on that,’ UK cabinet minister Darren Jones told Times Radio.

He added that the deal was in the final stages of going through parliament.

The UK kept control of the Chagos Islands after Mauritius gained independence from Britain in the 1960s.

But it evicted thousands of Chagos islanders, who have since mounted a series of legal claims for compensation in British courts.

In 2019, the International Court of Justice recommended that Britain hand the archipelago to Mauritius after decades of legal battles.

Challenges in international and domestic courts had left the status of the military base ‘under threat’, according to the UK government.

Opposition politicians in the UK have been critical of the deal, which would see Britain pay Mauritius £101 million ($136 million) annually for 99 years to lease Diego Garcia.

The net cost over the length of the lease would be around £3.4 billion if inflation was factored in, according to the government.

Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservative party, said: ‘Unfortunately on this issue President Trump is right.’

‘Thank goodness Trump has vetoed the surrender of the Chagos islands,’ said Nigel Farage, the populist leader of the hard-right Reform UK party.

But Ed Davey, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrat party, said Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer should begin to stand up to the US leader.

‘This shows Starmer’s approach to Trump has failed. The Chagos Deal was sold as proof the government could work with him. Now it’s falling apart. It’s time for the government to stand up to Trump; appeasing a bully never works.’​

 

[Saif]

Trump says ‘sad to see’ US-UK relationship deteriorate over Iran strikes

US President Donald Trump criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer for a second time this week, saying it was "sad to see" the so-called special relationship deteriorate after Britain initially held off providing support for US strikes on Iran. Starmer said Britain did not take part in the assault o

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Trump says ‘sad to see’ US-UK relationship deteriorate over Iran strikes

REUTERS
Published :
Mar 03, 2026 21:23
Updated :
Mar 03, 2026 21:23

US President Donald Trump criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer for a second time this week, saying it was "sad to see" the so-called special relationship deteriorate after Britain initially held off providing support for US strikes on Iran.

Starmer said Britain did not take part in the assault on Tehran by the United States and Israel because any British military action must have a "viable, thought-through plan" and he did not believe in "regime change from the skies".

But he has since allowed the US to use UK bases to launch what he called limited and defensive strikes to weaken Tehran's capabilities, after Iran hit US allies in the region with drones and missiles. On Monday, a British base in Cyprus was hit by a drone that Cypriot officials said was likely launched by Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Trump said he did not need Britain's support to strike Iran but said the delay had been disappointing.

"It's very sad to see that the relationship is obviously not what it was," Trump told the Sun newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.

TRUMP SAYS HE HAS STRONGER PARTNERS IN EUROPE

He told the Telegraph on Monday that Starmer had appeared to be "worried about the legality" of the strikes on Iran, when he weighed whether to allow Britain's strategically important air base, Diego Garcia, to be used.

Starmer has been criticised from all sides at home for the decision, with opponents on the left calling for him to condemn the military action while on the right, opposition leaders Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage attacked Starmer for failing to back Britain's key security and intelligence ally.

Britain has long prided itself on its relationship with the US, aided by British leaders such as Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair cultivating strong relationships with their counterparts, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Starmer, a centre-left former lawyer, had surprised his critics when he too struck up a solid relationship with Trump, but that has been tested in the last year since the US leader became more combative on a number of fronts.

Trump told the Sun that he never thought he would see Britain become a reluctant partner, and instead heaped praise on France and Germany.

"This was the most solid relationship of all," he said. "And now we have very strong relationships with other countries in Europe."

"France has been great. They've all been great. The UK has been much different from others."

Britain, France and Germany all released a joint statement in response to Iranian attacks on Saturday, saying they were in close contact with the US, Israel and partners in the region, and were calling for a resumption of negotiations.

LESSONS OF IRAQ

Starmer has defended his response, telling parliament on Monday he had to judge what was in Britain's national interest. "That is what I have done, and I stand by it," he said.

Polling published by YouGov on Tuesday showed that people in Britain were opposed to the US strikes on Iran by 49 per cent to 28 per cent.

Senior minister Darren Jones said Britain had learnt lessons from its involvement in the 2003 Iraq war, when it joined US action to remove Saddam Hussein that was justified on false claims that the country had weapons of mass destruction.

"One of the lessons of Iraq was that it's better to be involved in these situations when you are aligned with international partners, and as I say, with a clear legal basis in the plan," he said.​