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UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

bbc.co.uk

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Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#81

Post by reaperducer »

ethbr1 wrote: post #75
mmooss wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK, the US and UK value Diego Garcia because currently there aren't geographical alternatives for that base. Where else could they put it that would have the same benefits?

There are multiple islands and archipelagos in the region. Close to Africa/ME: Maldives, Seychelles, Comoros, Mayotte Close to SE Asia: Cocos and Christmas Island Diego Garcia just happened to be forcibly depopulated by the British, so was a convenient choice.

  Close to Africa/ME: Maldives, Seychelles, Comoros, Mayotte
  Close to SE Asia: Cocos and Christmas Island
That's the whole point of Diego Garcia: It's not "close to" anywhere, and it's nearly in the middle of a bunch of places. That's what give it its strategic importance.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#82

Post by mardifoufs »

bpodgursky wrote: post #11

> African nations began to speak with one voice on the issue, pushing the UK hard on the issue of decolonialisation. I wish the journalists had a little more sophistication on this. African nations began to push the UK on this because China and Russia understand that Diego Garcia is a critical port, and made investment + aid/ bribery + weapons (China / Russia respectively) conditional on forcing the issue.

Ah yes, because the UK has no agency and clearly hasn't shown itself to be very okay at standing up against Russia for example.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#83

Post by forinti »

rich_sasha wrote: post #68
SllX wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jersey is a Crown Dependency, not an Overseas Territory. They share a King and the UK is responsible for their defense, but domestically Crown Dependencies are more independent of Parliament than your average British overseas territory.

Ok, fair point. Can the UK hand over Bermuda, or Cayman isles? I vaguely remember handing over the Falkland Islands to Argentina was actually on the cards before the invasion, so perhaps surprisingly the answer is "yes".

Which highlights how stupid the war was. Argentina should have invested in a better relationship with the islands. They would all be speaking Spanish by now.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#84

Post by atq2119 »

atvrager wrote: post #78
Maxatar wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, of course Parliament will need to vote on this, but the Prime Minister of the UK has approved it and unlike in the US., in the UK votes are predominantly along party lines so it will pass.

Can I visit the world you're in, where votes in US Congress aren't predominantly along party lines?

Yeah, the real difference is that in the US, there is a separate election for president. In the UK, as in many other countries, the party that wins parliament gets to form the government (and determine the prime minister or whatever the title of the de facto head of the executive is). In some countries this is complicated by multiparty systems where coalitions are required, but the general idea of aligning the legislative and executive branches in this way is fairly common.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#85

Post by ta1243 »

scottLobster wrote: post #74
throw0101d wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From there, Mauritius will sign a lease agreement of 99 years with the USA so that the military base there can continue to operate. Seems to be a lease with the UK (which then 'sub-leases' to the US?): * https://www.reuters.com/world/britain-agrees-chagos-island-s... Curious to know if there will be extension provisions: people think 99 years is a long time (which isn't wrong), but Hong Kong went back to China afte…

Yeah, but Mauritius isn't China. If the UK had reneged on the Hong Kong lease, there were economic and military options for China to potentially enforce it. A lot can happen in 99 years, but even assuming a serious decline in US economic/military might I don't see a scenario where Mauritius could successfully enforce the lease on its own.

Mauritius isn't China today. In 99 years time it could be part of a China. Or a future country that is more powerful than China.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#86

Post by andyjohnson0 »

threemux wrote: post #39
matthewmorgan wrote: post #9

Some countries have constitutions that forbid giving up any parts of its territory, but apparently our government can hand over sovereignty without even a vote in parliament

I'm assuming all this is contingent on a treaty vote in Parliament? I'm not familiar with how it works in the UK

In the UK the executive (ie "the government") makes and ratifies treaties, using delegated authority [1] from the monarch.

There is no general rule that parliament has to ratify, or even scrutinise, a treaty. The main exceptions are if the treaty requires domestic legislation to be passed by parliament, or if the treaty has significant constitutionap implications. Given our un-codified constitution here in the UK, I would imagine the latter constaint comes with some wriggle-room.

This [2] briefing by the House of Commons Library lays it all out.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_prerogative_in_the_Unite...

[2] https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-...

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#87

Post by andyjohnson0 »

Maxatar wrote: post #40
threemux wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming all this is contingent on a treaty vote in Parliament? I'm not familiar with how it works in the UK

Yes, of course Parliament will need to vote on this, but the Prime Minister of the UK has approved it and unlike in the US., in the UK votes are predominantly along party lines so it will pass.

> Yes, of course Parliament will need to vote on this

Not the case. The executive makes treaties. Parliament can scrutinise them but has no general ratification or veto role. See https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-... .

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#88

Post by p_l »

rich_sasha wrote: post #41

I imagine whoever got the 99 year lease is feeling pretty pleased about it - that's basically forever as far as they can tell. On the other hand, I bet the UK in 1997 would have hoped for a longer lease on Hong Kong.

I've seen few mentions that PRC actually expected UK to extend the lease, and was surprised when UK didn't...

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#89

Post by jowea »

rich_sasha wrote: post #41

I imagine whoever got the 99 year lease is feeling pretty pleased about it - that's basically forever as far as they can tell. On the other hand, I bet the UK in 1997 would have hoped for a longer lease on Hong Kong.

Even if that lease was permanent I doubt the PRC would just let it be. The time limit just meant they could just wait instead of having to negotiate or invade.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#90

Post by ta1243 »

khuey wrote: post #44
rich_sasha wrote: post #41

I imagine whoever got the 99 year lease is feeling pretty pleased about it - that's basically forever as far as they can tell. On the other hand, I bet the UK in 1997 would have hoped for a longer lease on Hong Kong.

Sea level rise may mean that a 99 year lease is longer than the island will be habitable.

At what point does sea level rise remove a countries EEZ claim.

Seems that it's a real issue -- https://www.reuters.com/investigations/sinking-tuvalu-fights...

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