Member

In entertaining the Mauritius treaty and the Bill before us today, the United States would be acquiescing in an arrangement that means a lot of money going to the Republic of Mauritius that could otherwise have been invested in NATO defence. In some ways more troubling is the fact that the provision of this huge sum for one island creates an incentive for the Republic of Mauritius to seek to lease other islands for similarly large amounts of money. We know that it cannot resettle the islands because it does not have the capacity to go there to set its flag on them, and it has had to ask India to take it there for that purpose. In the context where resettlement may not be a possibility, the transfer of 60 islands of great geo-strategic importance from a nuclear power with a navy to a small country that does not have the capacity even to get there under its own steam creates a power vacuum in a very sensitive spot. Of course, the United Kingdom and the USA will remain on Diego Garcia, but, crucially and unlike at present, without sovereignty over a single island, including Diego Garcia.