The Maldives Just Crashed the Chagos Islands Party, and Nobody Knows Who Gets the Archipelago

Paradise Lost (in Paperwork)

If you thought tropical island disputes were reserved for reality TV, think again. The Maldives has formally told the United Kingdom that it does not recognise the Chagos Islands deal struck between Britain and Mauritius, and it is threatening international legal action to back up its words with something sharper than a strongly worded letter.

President Mohamed Muizzu has now sent two written objections to London, the first on 8 November 2024 and another on 18 January 2026. He also rang Foreign Secretary David Lammy on 15 December 2025 to make it crystal clear: any transfer of the Chagos Archipelago must account for Maldivian interests. So much for a quiet Christmas.

What Is the UK-Mauritius Deal?

Here is the short version. Britain has controlled the Chagos Islands since acquiring them from France in 1814 via the Treaty of Paris. In 1965, London separated the archipelago from Mauritius just before granting the latter independence, a move the International Court of Justice ruled unlawful in a landmark 2019 advisory opinion. The UN General Assembly followed up with a near-unanimous vote of 116 to 6 demanding the UK hand the islands back.

Fast-forward to 2024, and the UK agreed to transfer sovereignty to Mauritius in exchange for a 99-year lease on the Diego Garcia military base, at an average cost of around GBP 101 million a year. The detailed terms work out to GBP 165 million per year for the first three years, dropping to GBP 120 million annually for years four to thirteen, with the whole package totalling approximately GBP 3.4 billion over the lease period. That is a lot of money for an island most people only know from spy novels.

So Where Do the Maldives Come In?

The Chagos Archipelago comprises more than 60 islands spread across seven atolls, sitting roughly 500 kilometres south of the Maldives. Diego Garcia is just 310 miles from Malé but a whopping 1,300 miles from Port Louis, Mauritius. The Maldives argues that geographical proximity gives it a stronger claim, and there is even DNA evidence showing that modern Chagossians have Maldivian heritage.

In 2023, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled on a maritime boundary dispute between Mauritius and the Maldives, broadly endorsing Mauritius's position. But Muizzu is having none of it. In February 2026, he told the Maldivian parliament that his government would no longer recognise the ITLOS maritime boundary and would incorporate overlapping waters into the Maldivian exclusive economic zone. The Maldives has since deployed patrol boats into disputed waters, which is the diplomatic equivalent of parking your car across someone else's driveway.

To add fuel to the fire, Muizzu formally revoked a 2022 letter from the previous Solih government that had recognised Mauritian sovereignty over Chagos. Mauritius responded by suspending all diplomatic relations with the Maldives on 27 February 2026.

Meanwhile, Everyone Else Has an Opinion

Donald Trump weighed in on Truth Social in February 2026, calling the UK's deal "an act of great stupidity" and urging Keir Starmer not to give up the territory. This is a notable U-turn, given Trump initially approved the deal in April 2025. The US State Department, for its part, has offered formal backing for the UK-Mauritius agreement.

UK Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty has maintained that sovereignty over the Chagos Islands is a bilateral matter between Britain and Mauritius, not the Maldives. But with the deal still unconfirmed in UK law and appearing to be indefinitely on hold, this saga is far from over.

In a particularly dramatic twist, four British Chagossians landed on Ile du Coin on 16 February 2026 to establish a permanent settlement without government permission, the first Chagossians to live on the islands since the 1971 expulsion. If sovereignty is possession, someone just made a very bold move.

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