UK says will revisit Chagos deal after latest Trump criticism

Britain has announced it will revise its agreement to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius following US President Donald Trump's harsh criticism of the deal, reported Wednesday. The controversy intensified when Trump, during his first bilateral meeting with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham at the UN General Assembly in New York, dismissed the agreement as "terrible."

Britain's decision to hand back the Indian Ocean archipelago and lease a strategic US-UK military base on Diego Garcia to the US has been a point of contention with Trump's administration. The UK paused the plans in April after facing vocal opposition from Trump, who had initially supported the pact before later branding it "an act of great stupidity."

Defense Secretary Wes Streeting stated that while Trump's opposition is "not news to us," his latest comments provide "absolute clarity" that his position on the current Chagos deal is not changing. The UK is currently working with its US partners to find a resolution to this thorny issue, though annual payments worth at least £120 million (US$159 million) to lease back the military base from Mauritius will not be made at this stage.