1 week Ago By Firstpost
India and Mauritius have been cooperating in the infrastructure development of Agalega Island, which can be a strategic asset for India. New Delhi has been negotiating unsuccessfully with the Seychelles for a military facility. Both were part of the British Indian Ocean Territory in possession of Mauritius, which also owned the key Chagos Islands, including Diego Garcia.
These sea and air bases did not play any significant role in the two continental World Wars but came into prominence later during the Cold War. The British had detached the strategically vital islands like Diego Garcia in the Chagos archipelago before granting independence to Mauritius. In turn, the British leased Diego Garcia to the Americans as a symbol of their ‘special relations’ for ‘indefinite use’.
The agreement on October 3, 2024, between the UK and Mauritius, while handing over full sovereignty of the nearly 60 islands, has retained sovereignty over Diego Garcia for another 99 years and till ‘it is no longer required’. The carte blanche ensures the UK-US alliance keeps the vital strategic base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. India is on the correct side in geo-politics, its strategy of hedging and strategic autonomy ensures it enjoys the best of both worlds.
The recent mending of relations with China is but a baby step in easing tensions along the Himalayas that will not remove adversarial relations, which will grow. Sea control of the Indian Ocean from the two choke points—the Suez Canal and Malacca Straits—is paramount for India to balance its insufficiency of deterrence along the Line of Actual Control. Acquisition of a base in the Seychelles along with Agalega will ensure command of the western entry point to the Indian Ocean.
India already dominates the Malacca Straits, which is the Chinese dilemma. A friendly regime in Seychells like the Jugnauth family in Mauritius would have helped. India-Mauritius relations excel all others in India’s extended neighbourhood.
After Nepal and India, Mauritius is the third Hindu majority country, but its internal fault lines are complicated. Bilateral relations took an upswing in 1984 when Indira Gandhi chose Maj Gen J (Juggy) N Taimni as Mauritius’s first Indian National Security Advisor. Since then, in the selection of the majority of NSAs, there has been Indian cooperation at the highest tier.
South Africa and China are also heavily invested in Mauritius. Prime Minister Anerood and Pravinal Jugnauth sought India’s help in securing the new deal with the UK. Agalega Islands is where a jetty and air strip have been constructed by India, which is part of its strategic dominance of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
In the 1980s, India had sought international consensus on making the Indian Ocean a zone of peace, while Sri Lanka canvassed to get the Indian Ocean declared a zone of peace. Before granting independence to Mauritius in 1966, the UK had bought off the Chagos archipelago for GBP 600,000, a princely sum at the time. In 1973, it paid GBP 650,000 to settle those removed from the Chagos Islands, and in 1982, another GBP 4000,000 was awarded for Chagosians.
But Britain’s legal problems with Chagosians are not over as the UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights Commission are involved. Before retaining control of Diego Garcia, the UK displayed uncanny strategic foresight east of Suez over the strategic network of islands around Diego Garcia. Although Diego Garcia played no significant part during World War I and II, its importance came into the spotlight after the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan.
The US had built Diego Garcia into a formidable military base to prosecute its operations in the Middle East, the Gulf area, and monitoring sea lanes of communication in the Indian Ocean. Operation Enduring Freedom (against Taliban and ‘world terrorism’) from 2001 onwards and Operation Iraqi Freedom against Saddam Hussein from 2003 onwards were fought from Diego Garcia. The discovery of Diego Garcia was more by accident than design.
It was, no one is sure, either Dutch or Portuguese who stumbled upon it, though the British did the first survey and mapping. James Lancaster, while on a voyage to India in 1602, got stuck in the reefs around Chagos in Diego Garcia and was happy to get to ‘open ocean again’. During World War I, Anglo-German rivalry played out in the Indian Ocean when the German warship Emden entered the lagoon, which was unfortified at the time, and the small British garrison was unaware that the war had started.
Both the Germans and the Brits exchanged warmth and generosity instead of hostility, and Emden, after rest and resupply, sailed out with ceremonial send-off. The wireless set in Diego Garcia was non-functional as Emden played havoc in Singapore and elsewhere till it was destroyed by coastal guns off India. Former President Mohamad Nasheed wrote in October 2024 in an Indian newspaper that Diego Garcia and the Chagos group were owned by the Sultans of the Maldives, and till as late as the 1930s, they would send expeditions south to Diego Garcia and other Chagos islands to mark and count coconuts with the Sultan’s seals.
They were the first to plant coconuts, and in a book on Diego Garcia, The Peak of Limuria by Richard Edes, it is noted that ‘7,000 coconuts were needed to produce one tonne of copra, which produced 11 hundred weights of crude oil’. That was one hell of an effort in producing energy. The strategic importance of Diego Garcia is fully established, as it will continue to play a key role in domination of the Indian Ocean Region as a key pivot.
The Chinese have been working feverishly in establishing bases off Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Madagascar and have a full-fledged naval establishment in Eritrea. But nothing will match the outreach and location of Diego Garcia. It is for that reason that India is working hard but quietly with the US for use of this facility.
Now that Trump will be the new president, will he oblige? The author is former GOC IPKF South Sri Lanka and founder member Defence Planning Staff, now Integrated Defence Staff, Ministry of Defence. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
.
