The written ministerial statement the United Kingdom Foreign Secretary James Cleverly issued last week, saying that the UK seeks to reach a settlement in its territorial dispute with Mauritius early next year, appears to be a breakthrough that will help end the UK's half-a-century occupation of the Chagos archipelago.
But apart from the UK allowing for the return of the 2,000 or so former inhabitants of the islands who it forcibly displaced in the 1960s and 1970s, the agreement the UK is offering Mauritius is highly unfair.
The UK intends to retain control of its strategic Indian Ocean military base in Diego Garcia, the major and the most valuable among the 60 islands of the archipelago, which it has leased to the United States. The US has reportedly received satisfactory assurances about its base from the UK before nodding to what is a reversal of the UK's long-term stance on the issue.
The rights and wrongs of the issue are crystal-clear. When Mauritius gained independence from the UK in 1968, London severed the Chagos islands from the rest of the country, forcibly deported the residents from the island, and then leased the island of Diego Garcia to the US as the latter's most important military base in the center of the vast Indian Ocean.
In 2019 the International Court of Justice, the United Nations' highest court, ruled that the continuing British occupation of the islands was illegal and the Chagos Islands were rightfully part of Mauritius. But the UK has previously chosen to describe the ruling as purely advisory, despite the mounting pressure on it.
By saying that any agreement with Mauritius will "ensure the continued effective operation of the joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia", Cleverly is actually putting the rightful owner of the islands in a disadvantageous position in their negotiations, something the UK has no legitimacy to do at all.
Rather than having the audacity to dictate terms to the rightful owner, the UK is obliged to not only hand all the islands back, but also compensate those it forcefully evicted from their homes.
The UK has benefited tremendously from not only the lease of its military base to the US but also the rich fishery and natural resources around the islands.
As such, what the UK wants is by no means to correct its mistakes, but to permanently legalize the lion's share of its booty by condescendingly granting the Mauritians a small part of their natural, overdue rights and interests — without showing any sense of shame for the nature of its deeds.