Chagos Islands: Sovereignty
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will list all meetings (a) Ministers and (b) senior officials in his Department have had on the transfer of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
Answered by Stephen Doughty
Negotiations with Mauritius on sovereignty of BIOT / the Chagos Archipelago began in November 2022. Since then, there have been 13 rounds of negotiations, including two rounds under the current UK Government. The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary met the then Mauritian Prime Minister in London on 23 July, and negotiating rounds led to political agreement between the Prime Minister and then Mauritian Prime Minister on 3 October. The then Prime Minister's Special Envoy for BIOT negotiations, Jonathan Powell, and PM Ramgoolam met on 25 November. I and the Attorney General met with the Mauritian Attorney General on 16 January. This engagement has been supplemented by numerous official level meetings, and joint statements from the UK and Mauritian governments were issued on 20 December and 13 January.
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