Burnham agrees to review Chagos deal after Trump calls it 'terrible' at first UNGA meeting

Donald Trump branded the Chagos Islands deal “terrible” at his first face-to-face meeting with Andy Burnham on Tuesday, saying the prime minister had agreed to “look at it” again. Burnham nodded: “Yep.”

The pair met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. “I don’t support it. I think it’s terrible. It was a terrible deal,” Trump said, The Times reported. “They [Mauritius] all of a sudden say they have ownership. Somebody has ownership that never showed up before after decades and centuries. I think it’s ridiculous.”

Asked if the deal was dead, Burnham said he had inherited the situation and safeguarding the base was critical for both countries’ security: “So what I said in the meeting is that we will work to find that resolution between the different sides, and we’ll work hard to find it. … I’m confident we can find it working with our US partners,” PA reported.

Trump called Diego Garcia “a very important piece of real estate, both militarily and strategically”; UK relations, he said, were “more up” than under Sir Keir Starmer, and Burnham a “natural businessperson”.

It updates Tuesday’s resolution pledge: Britain agreed last year to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after more than two centuries of control, keeping a 99-year lease over Diego Garcia, with £101 million a year in payments — about £3.4 billion over the deal’s lifetime, Reuters reported. The implementing bill has stalled in Parliament; on Monday Burnham spoke to Mauritian PM Navin Ramgoolam, with their foreign ministers to meet at UNGA.

Sources

• The Times — “Terrible” Chagos deal under review after Andy Burnham–Trump meeting
• The Times — UN General Assembly: Trump meets Andy Burnham, latest news
• PA via Eastern Daily News — “Britain will work hard” on Chagos deal resolution, PM says after Trump criticism
• Reuters via Straits Times — British PM Andy Burnham seeks resolution to dispute over Diego Garcia base