Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu has written to UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham asking him to reopen sovereignty negotiations over the Chagos Archipelago, arguing that Male was never consulted before Britain agreed to hand the islands to Mauritius. The letter, made public on 8 September 2026, adds a new claimant to a dispute that had, until now, run largely between London, Port Louis and Washington.
Muizzu stressed “the importance of meaningful dialogue between the UK and the Maldives on matters concerning the sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago,” and said he was “deeply disappointed” that his country was left out of the negotiations that led to the May 2025 agreement under Burnham’s predecessor as UK prime minister, Keir Starmer. He urged Burnham to “rectify this oversight by your predecessor.”
An argument based on distance
The Maldives bases its case on geography and history rather than a competing legal ruling. The archipelago sits roughly 500 kilometres from the Maldives, compared with more than four times that distance from Mauritius, and Male points to what it describes as shared cultural and historical ties as well as its role in regional marine conservation. The 2025 deal, which the UK has described as settling a long-running sovereignty dispute with Mauritius, allows Britain to retain the joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia under a lease reported at around $136 million a year for at least 99 years.
A deal already under strain
The Maldivian request lands as the UK-Mauritius agreement faces separate pressure from Washington. US President Donald Trump has criticised the arrangement, and British officials have said implementation of the handover could effectively stall until he leaves office, even as London insists it remains committed to the transfer. A Foreign Office team was expected in Mauritius in the final days of September to work through technical aspects of the agreement.
Why it matters
The Chagos dispute has already produced one international ruling, the International Court of Justice’s 2019 advisory opinion favouring Mauritius, and a separate maritime boundary judgment between Mauritius and the Maldives. Muizzu’s intervention does not reopen either of those legal findings, but it signals that Indian Ocean states left on the margins of a great-power arrangement over a strategic military base are prepared to press their own claims publicly. For a deal already delayed by an American president’s objections, a second unresolved grievance, from a smaller neighbour this time, adds another complication to a transfer that was originally due to have been under way by now.
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