PORT LOUIS, June 11– Mauritian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade Dhananjay Ramful said on Wednesday that he had “at no time” heard U.S. President Donald Trump express an intention to purchase the Chagos Archipelago, describing the report of an alleged U.S. plan to acquire the archipelago as “fake news.”
He made the remarks in response to a question from the Mauritian press following a ceremony marking the conclusion of an updated economic partnership agreement between the European Union and Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Comoros, held in Balaclava, in northwest Mauritius.
The Telegraph, a British newspaper, reported last Sunday that the Trump administration was considering a plan to buy the Chagos Archipelago to gain control of Diego Garcia, where a U.S.-British military base is based.
“At no time have I seen President Donald Trump state that he wishes to buy Diego Garcia,” Ramful said, adding that he would not comment on a piece of “fake news.”
The minister also said that The Telegraph “does not want the agreement between Britain and Mauritius on the Chagos to be concluded.” According to Mauritian media, the Attorney General’s Office of Mauritius also said that it had received “no official proposal” and had not been “approached, directly or indirectly, by the U.S. administration regarding a separate agreement concerning Diego Garcia or the Chagos Archipelago.”
“The position of Mauritius remains unchanged: its sovereignty over the Chagos is not negotiable,” the office said. The Chagos Archipelago was separated from Mauritius in 1965, when the country was still a British colony.
Britain leased Diego Garcia, the largest island in the archipelago, to the United States as a joint U.S.-British military facility the following year, leading to the displacement of thousands of residents from their homes.
On May 22, 2025, Britain and Mauritius signed a deal that formally ceded British control of the Chagos Archipelago to the Mauritian government.
Under the terms of the agreement, Mauritius would lease the Diego Garcia military base back to Britain and the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has said repeatedly that Washington opposes Britain’s transfer of sovereignty over the archipelago. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
