Where are the Chagos Islands, why has the UK given them to Mauritius and what about the Falklands?

The UK Government has reached a governmental statement to let Mauritius to instrumentality sovereignty implicit the Chagos Islands.

The historical statement struck this week means Mauritius volition presume sovereignty implicit the archipelago portion the associated US-UK subject basal remains connected Diego Garcia island.

Reaction to the woody was mixed, with immoderate hailing the extremity to a bitter and long-running quality implicit Britain's past African colony.

But others, including Tory enactment candidates, suggested it could undermine UK security.

The concatenation of Indian Ocean islands are claimed by Mauritius but are really much than 2,000km distant from the African nation.

Chagos has 7 atolls and astir 60 islands; of these, Diego Garcia is by acold the largest.

Mauritius is an land disconnected the eastbound seashore of Madagascar, besides an island, which is disconnected the seashore of south-east Africa.

Chagos archipelago is simply a strategical constituent successful the Indian Ocean betwixt Africa and India, which is wherefore it is simply a utile spot for nations seeking determination influence.

Around 3,000 radical unrecorded connected the islands, who are mostly British and American servicemen.

The islands were location to the Chagossian radical earlier they were expelled successful the Sixties and Seventies by the US and UK governments arsenic they established an airbase connected Diego Garcia.

The Chagossians mostly past settled successful Mauritius and person not been allowed backmost since, though the caller statement paves the mode for their return.

Human rights campaigners, who person called for afloat reparations to generations affected by the forcible displacement of islanders, argued the woody does not spell acold capable to code the wrongs of the past.

Chagossians were forced to permission the cardinal Indian Ocean territory successful the Sixties and Seventies to marque mode for the subject base.

The expulsions are regarded arsenic a shameful parts of Britain's modern assemblage past and Chagossians person spent decades warring to instrumentality to the islands.

The United Nations' highest court, the International Court of Justice, antecedently ruled the UK's medication of the territory was unlawful and indispensable end.

A associated connection from the UK and Mauritius governments said the caller woody volition beryllium taxable to a pact that volition "address wrongs of the past and show the committedness of some parties to enactment the payment of Chagossians".

The Foreign Office said the statement means the presumption of the basal volition beryllium undisputed and legally secure.

There person been concerns raised by Labour’s governmental opponents that the statement volition let China to make power successful the area.

Former overseas caput James Cleverly described the determination arsenic "weak, weak, weak" portion erstwhile information curate Tom Tugendhat suggested it risked allowing China to summation a subject foothold successful the Indian Ocean.

He said United States officials person been "intimately involved" successful the negotiations, telling Times Radio: "Every azygous condemnation and paragraph has been done an inter-agency process, each of the agencies successful Washington. We've secured each of their reddish lines successful that negotiation.

"When you travel to spot the elaborate treaty, which is truly rather agelong with the exchanges of letters, you'll spot that this thought of a Chinese basal is conscionable hooey. It can't happen, won't happen.”

After the UK agreed to instrumentality the Chagos Islands, the Argentine overseas minister, Diana Mondino, said it is clip to instrumentality steps for the Malvinas (as the Argentinians telephone the islands) are returned.

"We invited this measurement successful the close absorption and the extremity to outdated practices,” she said.

“Following the way we person already taken, with factual actions and not bare rhetoric, we volition retrieve afloat sovereignty implicit our Malvinas Islands.

"The Malvinas were, are and volition ever beryllium Argentine."

Argentina has agelong wanted backmost the Falklands but residents of the islands voted 99 per cent successful favour of remaining portion of the UK successful 2013.

In a connection earlier connected Thursday, Falklands politician Alison Blake sought to reassure residents that Britain's committedness to the South Atlantic territory was "unwavering".

She said the humanities discourse of the 2 territories was "very different".