Trump to rule on Starmer’s Chagos deal

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to hand back the strategic islands to Mauritius until he was back in the White House.

Mr Trump is expected to review the deal after he retakes office on Monday and is fully briefed on security concerns surrounding Chinese influence over the territory.

Senior members of the Trump team, including Marco Rubio, the incoming secretary of state, and Mike Waltz, White House national security adviser, have said giving away the islands to Mauritius could help China’s military ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.

Mr Trump will be presented with classified intelligence about the Diego Garcia air base and briefings on the legal question of the islands’ ownership after taking back the Oval Office, sources said.

of a deal over the Chagos Islands after direct intervention from Mr Trump’s team.

“We’ve had conversations with the incoming Trump administration,” the source said.

“It’s only right that they look at it, and we look forward to having those conversations about a range of details in the deal after the inauguration.”

Sir Keir told the Financial Times on Friday: “I think it’s right that he scrutinises [the deal].”

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A call about the talks is understood to have come from Mr Trump’s inner circle, and has bolstered concerns among some officials that the incoming president will block the deal entirely.

No deal ‘behind the back’

Mauritius, which claims the islands were stolen by the UK, conceded that Mr Trump would now have the final say.

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John Kennedy, a Republican senator who has publicly opposed the deal, met with Lord Godson, the influential director of the London think tank Policy Exchange, to discuss the Chagos islands this week.

“The Trump team are sensing a great deal of concern from the GOP caucus in the House and the Senate about the relentless legal maximalism of the UK Government,” Lord Godson told The Telegraph.

“It is filtering up to incoming executive officials.”

The first few weeks of Mr Trump’s presidency are set to be dominated by relations with China

On Friday, he had what he described as a “very good” telephone conversation with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.

“It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together,” he said, adding: “President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the world more peaceful and safe!”

The pair discussed trade relations and the future of Chinese-owned social media company TikTok, after the Supreme Court upheld a ban imposed by the Biden administration on Friday. The decision will be reviewed once Mr Trump takes office.

However, the president-elect has taken a hard line on Beijing, pledging new tariffs on Chinese-made imports. Mr Rubio has described the country as “the largest, most advanced adversary America has ever faced”.

It comes amid indications that the British Government may be cooling on its support for closer Chinese relations in a bid to woo Mr Trump.

and values.

The Labour grandee had previously urged Britain to strengthen economic ties with Beijing and had accused Mr Trump of being a “bully” towards the country.

Chinese aggression

But in an article he wrote on Friday on the website of Fox News – the incoming president’s favourite news channel – he decried China as having become “more aggressive abroad” over the past two decades.

He said: “The Chinese government I have observed intensively over the past 20 years is more aggressive abroad and controlling at home and in many sectors, now directly challenges Western governments and our values.”

for trade negotiations.

But on Friday, Sir Keir declined to say whether he believed Mr Trump would be happy with the rapprochement between the UK and China.

In an interview with the FT, he replied: “Let’s see. The US is our closest ally. It’s usually best not to get ahead of ourselves.”

A government official denied the UK was climbing down over its relations with China, claiming ministers were following a “three Cs” approach of “challenge, compete and co-operate”.

The deal over the Chagos Islands follows decades of dispute over their ownership. They remained under British control after Mauritius was granted independence in 1956.

The tiny archipelago has hosted an American air base since the early 1970s.

The International Court of Justice has ruled that native Chagossians were unlawfully expelled by the UK to make way for the base, and that the islands should be handed to Mauritius.

Under the terms of the deal, which was first mooted by the previous Conservative government, Mauritius will be given sovereignty over the islands but they will be leased back to the UK at a cost of £9 billion over a decade.

The new Mauritian government, which took office in November, is now pushing for further concessions including a larger “Chagos fund” to pay for infrastructure development in Mauritius.

Mr Trump’s allies have said the deal would threaten US interests in the Indo-Pacific region, and could give China a foothold on the strategically placed archipelago.

Downing Street denies that there are any security risks to either the US or the UK posed by its deal.

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