Author: Bertil Lintner

Published: March 2025

IN OCTOBER last year, the decades-long sovereignty dispute over the Chagos Archipelago seemed to have been solved. The United Kingdom had agreed to return the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), as it is officially called, to Mauritius, to which it belonged before 1965, when that island was still a British colony. Details about the transfer of power over the Chagos Archipelago, a string of islands around 500 kilometers southwest of the Maldives, have yet to be determined — but it is about much more than to whom the mere 56 square kilometers of land and 545,000 square kilometers of ocean around them should belong. The archipelago has at present no native, or permanent, population, but its largest island, Diego Garcia, is where the United States has one of its most important air and naval bases in the Indo-Pacific region. According to the tentative agreement between the UK and Mauritius, the US military will be able to remain there for what has been termed “an initial period” of 99 years.

For full article, please open the link:

https://www.globalasia.org/v20no1/feature/big-power-games-in-the-indian-ocean_bertil-lintner

The Romanian Institute for Europe-Asia Studies (IRSEA) and Global Asia Forum a Journal of East Asia Foundation. have agreed to enter into an informal agreement on republishing their studies and analysis.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or view of IRSEA.