United States President Donald Trump has accused the United Kingdom of “great stupidity” over its decision to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, describing the move as a major national security blunder, which the US must avoid about the Greeeland acquisition.
“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 wrote on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday.
The remarks signalled a sharp reversal from Trump’s earlier stance, as he had previously endorsed the agreement between Britain and Mauritius.
Under the deal, the UK will return the Chagos archipelago to its former colony while paying to lease the strategic US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the chain.
Britain retained control of the Chagos Islands after Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s but forcibly evicted thousands of islanders, who have since pursued compensation through British courts.
In 2019, the International Court of Justice ruled that the UK should relinquish control of the islands, urging Britain to complete the decolonisation process by handing the territory back to Mauritius.
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