Member

Crucially, it is our duty to explore that alternative legal way forward. It is likely to provide a greater measure of legal certainty for the United States, because, if this Bill becomes law and the treaty is implemented, the United States will just exchange one legal uncertainty for another. Instead of the legal uncertainty pertaining to the Diego Garcia base arising from the Republic of Mauritius claiming sovereignty over the islands in defiance of the UK, we will be confronted by an alternative dispute. The Chagossian people are, for reasons that I will pick up when speaking to other amendments, likely to obtain a form of international personality. They will instead claim sovereignty over the islands in defiance of the claim of the Republic of Mauritius.