A formidable alliance of senior American and British defence veterans, politicians, academics and former national security officials has launched a blistering public challenge to the UK Labour government’s proposed handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, branding the plan reckless, destabilising and strategically dangerous.
In a sharply worded joint statement, more than 80 signatories voiced “strong support” for Donald Trump’s denunciation of the proposal as “GREAT STUPIDITY,” warning that Prime Minister Keir Starmer risks imperilling one of the West’s most critical military partnerships.
At the heart of the controversy lies Diego Garcia, a remote atoll in the Chagos Islands that hosts a vast U.S. base underpinning operations across the Middle East and Indo Pacific. The islands are currently owned and administered by the United Kingdom, but London has been negotiating a transfer of sovereignty to Mauritius, with Britain then leasing Diego Garcia back for 99 years.
The coalition argues that such an arrangement would introduce a perilous new vulnerability into the transatlantic alliance. Under the mooted terms, the UK would pay billions to retain access, yet a single missed payment could void the lease, potentially leaving the American base operating without a secure legal footing.
A treaty clash and nuclear flashpoint
Signatories also point to Mauritius’s adherence to the Pelindaba Treaty, which establishes Africa as a nuclear weapons free zone. Because Washington maintains a long standing policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear arms at overseas bases, they contend that any sovereignty transfer could expose U.S. operations to immediate legal challenges and diplomatic pressure campaigns.
“The strategic consequences would be profound,” the statement warns, urging Washington to insist that London reaffirm the 1966 UK U.S. defence agreement governing Diego Garcia and to abandon any third party deals that might weaken it.
Political firepower on both sides of the Atlantic
The unusually broad coalition spans retired admirals and generals, former Pentagon officials, legal scholars and sitting or former lawmakers. British signatories include Nigel Farage, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former defence secretary Grant Shapps, historian David Starkey and peers from across the House of Lords. On the U.S. side are former National Security Council officials, senior commanders from the Navy and Marine Corps and defence strategists long embedded in Indo Pacific planning.
Organisers say the scale of the sign on is deliberate.
“This is not a fringe protest or a fleeting political squall,” said one person involved in circulating the letter. “It is a gathering storm of experienced figures who believe the proposed deal would be a historic error, and one that could seriously damage U.S. UK relations.”
A warning to Downing Street
For Starmer’s government, the intervention lands as negotiations with Mauritius continue and international scrutiny intensifies. Critics within the coalition frame the issue not as a routine territorial settlement but as a fundamental test of Britain’s reliability as Washington’s closest military ally.
They argue that surrendering sovereignty only to rent back a strategically indispensable base would weaken Britain’s hand, embolden legal and diplomatic challenges to U.S. deployments and inject uncertainty into a region already defined by mounting great power rivalry.
The group’s message, summed up in its rallying cry, “Don’t Surrender Diego Garcia,” is expected to be formally delivered to Trump in the coming days, ensuring that the Chagos question becomes a live and potentially combustible issue in U.S. UK diplomacy.
Whether Downing Street adjusts course or presses ahead, the statement makes one thing unmistakably clear, opposition to the Chagos deal is no longer confined to partisan critics. It has crystallised into a heavyweight transatlantic bloc, one determined to confront the British government head on over what it calls a strategic gamble too dangerous to take.
The Statement:
Don’t Surrender Diego Garcia!
We strongly support President Donald J. Trump’s position that the British government’s proposal to give the Chagos islands to Mauritius is “GREAT STUPIDITY”.
In 1966 the United States and United Kingdom signed an “Exchange of notes constituting an agreement concerning the availability for defense purposes of the British Indian Ocean Territory” in preparation for the United States building major military infrastructure on Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean.
The Diego Garcia base is now one of the most important American bases outside the United States. That agreement is in effect until 2036 and states “The Territory shall remain under United Kingdom sovereignty.”
In spite of that, the British government is now trying to pass a proposed deal with Mauritius that would give Diego Garcia and the rest of the Chagos islands to Mauritius.
Under the proposed deal, the United Kingdom would give Mauritius the islands then pay billions of dollars over 99 years to rent Diego Garcia back from Mauritius. If the United Kingdom misses one payment, the lease can be terminated, leaving the American base illegally on Mauritian soil.
To make things worse, Mauritius has signed the Pelindaba Treaty, which prohibits nuclear weapons on its soil. Given U.S. policy to “neither confirm nor deny” the presence of nuclear weapons, as soon as Diego Garcia is transferred to Mauritius, the U.S. will be open to legal challenges.
We strongly support President Donald J. Trump’s statement that the United Kingdom continuing with the proposed deal with Mauritius is an act of “GREAT STUPIDITY” and that it risks irrevocably damaging the special relationship between America and the UK.
The United States government must insist that the United Kingdom reaffirm the existing bilateral agreement between the two nations that currently governs “the availability for defense purposes” of Diego Garcia and repudiate agreements with other parties that would violate or otherwise imperil that accord.
Signed:
Thomas L. Conant — Lt. Gen., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), Former Deputy Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (2012–2014) — USA
Jerry McAbee — Brig. Gen., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) — USA
Mark Montgomery — Rear Adm., U.S. Navy (Ret.), Senior Director, Foundation for Defense of Democracies — USA
James Fanell — Capt., U.S. Navy (Ret.), Geneva Centre for Security Policy — USA
Grant Newsham — Col., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) — USA
Raul (Pete) Pedrozo — Howard S. Levie Chair on the Law of Armed Conflict, U.S. Naval War College — USA
Frank Gaffney — Former Assistant Secretary of Defense (Acting), Institute for the American Future — USA
Arthur Waldron — Professor, University of Pennsylvania — USA
June Teufel Dreyer — Professor of Political Science, University of Miami — USA
Kerry K. Gershaneck — Professor, Author, U.S. Marine (Ret.), Global Risk Mitigation Foundation (GRMF), Honolulu, Hawaii — USA
Victor H. Mair — Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Pennsylvania — USA
Dede Laugesen — President, Save the Persecuted Christians — USA
Rob Maness — Col., U.S. Air Force (Ret.), Veterans Leadership Fund — USA
George Parker — Exec Director, Revealing Light Ministries — USA
James Grundvig — Journalist — USA
James Sturdevant II — Retired Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) intelligence officer (GG-
14) / Analyst, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), U.S. Southern Command
(SOUTHCOM), U.S. European Command (EUCOM), U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) — USA
Stuart Cvrk — Capt., U.S. Navy (Ret.), U.S. Navy — USA
Geoffrey Wilson — Lt. Cmdr., U.S. Navy (Ret.), Fanell’s Red Star Risen — USA
Jim Newman — SCO SETA (Strategic Capabilities Office support contractor) / Capt., U.S.
Navy (Ret.), Strategic Capabilities Office — USA
Philip Lark — Col., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.), Marshall Center — USA
Donald Henry — Capt., U.S. Navy (Ret.) — USA
David Rosenberg — Capt., U.S. Navy (Ret.) — USA
Timothy Lyon — Capt., U.S. Navy Reserve (Ret.) — USA
James R. Everett III — Capt., U.S. Navy (Ret.) — USA
Markham B. Dossett — Cmdr., U.S. Navy Reserve (Ret.), President, TALON ASSET
Management LLC — USA
Robert Eldridge — President, The Eldridge Think Tank — USA
Karen Siegemund — President, American Freedom Alliance — USA
James Sturdevant II — Retired DIA counterintelligence officer / China–Taiwan–South Asia
subject-matter expert, U.S. Government (Ret.) — USA
Brian Kennedy — Chairman, Committee on the Present Danger: China — USA
Bradley Thayer — Fellow, American Freedom Alliance — USA
Chuck DeVore — Lt. Col., U.S. Army (Ret.) — USA
Alexander Gray — Former Deputy Assistant to the President & Chief of Staff, White House
National Security Council (2019–21) — USA
Craig Ozaki — Retired U.S. Navy officer — USA
Jorge Parrott — President, Christ’s Mandate For Missions — USA
The Honorable George Rasley — Editor, ConservativeHQ.com — USA
Constance Elliott — Member, Committee on the Present Danger: China — USA
John B. Atkinson — Col., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) — USA
Wayne Morris — Col., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) — USA
Peter Miller — Col., U.S. Marine Corps — USA
Stephen Baird — Col., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) — USA
Robert Barrow — Lt. Col., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) — USA
Bill Treadwell — Master Chief Petty Officer, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Citizen — USA
Glenn Looney — Cmdr., U.S. Navy (Ret.), Constitutional Conservative — USA
Daniel Billman — Cpl., U.S. Marine Corps — USA
Jeffrey Nash — President, JNLD, Inc — USA
Jane Stein — Owner, Janestein-Stage-Elements.com — USA
Robert Rohrer — Cpl., U.S. Marine Corps — USA
Lew Kennedy — Navy nuclear specialist (as listed), Veteran; Citizen — USA
Lawrence McCarteny — Master Gunnery Sgt., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) — USA
Steven Clayton — Capt., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) — USA
Mark Johnson — Cmdr., U.S. Navy Reserve (Ret.) — USA
Lawrence Peter — U.S. Navy (Ret.) — USA
Richard Dunn — Col., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) — USA
Rod Martin, Esq. — Chairman of the Board, Institute for the American Future — USA
Tim Wilson — Lt. Col. (Retd.), British Army — USA
Howard Hills — U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) (Ret.), Lead U.S. Counsel,
Compact of Free Association (COFA) negotiations — USA
Mark M. Drake — Capt., U.S. Navy (Ret.) — USA
Brian Colfack — USA
Bruce Byron — USA
Paul Berkowitz — USA
William Schroeder — USA
Peter Brown — USA
Peter Watson — USA
Michael Champley — USA
United Kingdom
Rear Adm. Christopher John Parry, CBE (Retd) — Retired Rear Admiral, Royal Navy;
Defence Analyst and Military Commentator — United Kingdom
Sir Iain Duncan Smith — Former Leader of the United Kingdom Conservative Party; Conservative Member of the United Kingdom Parliament (Chingford & Woodford Green); Co-Chair, Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) — United Kingdom
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere (Daniel Hannan) — Member of the United Kingdom House of Lords (Conservative peer); Writer, Columnist, and Founding President of the Institute for Free Trade — United Kingdom
Nigel Farage — Leader of Reform United Kingdom (political party in the United Kingdom) — United Kingdom
Lord Ashcroft, KCMG PC (Michael Ashcroft) — Businessman, Philanthropist, Author and Former Deputy Chairman/Treasurer of the United Kingdom Conservative Party; Founder & Chairman of Crimestoppers charity — United Kingdom
Sir Bill Cash CH — Long-serving Conservative Member of the United Kingdom Parliament; Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee — United Kingdom
Baroness Hoey of Lylehill and Rathlin — Crossbench Peer in the United Kingdom House of Lords (former Labour Member of Parliament) — United Kingdom
The Earl of Leicester — Hereditary Peer in the United Kingdom House of Lords — United Kingdom
Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee — Member of the United Kingdom House of Lords (Crossbench / formerly Conservative politics) — United Kingdom
Lord Strathcarron — Member of the United Kingdom House of Lords — United Kingdom
Andrew Wigmore — Political consultant and campaigner; former United Kingdom political adviser — United Kingdom
The Rt Hon Sir Grant Shapps — Former United Kingdom Defence Secretary; Conservative Member of Parliament — United Kingdom
Lord Cruddas of Shoreditch (Peter Cruddas) — Member of the United Kingdom House of
Lords (Conservative peer); Founder & CEO of CMC Markets plc — United Kingdom
Dr. David Starkey CBE — Historian and Broadcaster; Former Lecturer at United Kingdom universities; Author specialized in British history — United Kingdom
Ben Habib — Leader of Advance United Kingdom (political party) — United Kingdom
Rear Adm. Christopher John Parry, CBE (Retd) — Retired Rear Admiral, Royal Navy; Defence Analyst and Military Commentator — United Kingdom
Dr. Nile Gardiner — Foreign Policy Expert and Former Aide to United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; Director of a Washington-based think tank — United Kingdom
