Britain's deal to hand back control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius has sparked concerns of a strategic surrender to China after Beijing invested heavily in building economic ties with the Indian Ocean nation
Britain's deal to hand back control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius has sparked concerns of a strategic surrender to China after Beijing invested heavily in building economic ties with the Indian Ocean nation
The main terminal at the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam airport, named after the revered Mauritian prime minister who secured the country’s independence from Britain in 1968, was completed in 2013 by a Chinese contractor with the help of a $260m loan from Beijing which is being paid off over 20 years at a total cost of some $390m.in Mauritius, ranging from the headquarters of the state broadcaster to a key dam and a sports complex.
As one Western diplomatic source put it: “China has been very active in Mauritius, just as it has been quietly active in many other places for a long time. It is focused on building a trade infrastructure that is separate from the West, largely centred on the developing world. Mauritius is an almost textbook example of Beijing’s playbook in this area.”
The Government yesterday pushed back strongly against such claims, pointing out that the deal being objected to so strongly by Conservatives arose from negotiations started when the party was itself in power and insisting the proposed agreement contains safeguards preventing China from accessing the Chagos Islands.
Experts point out that culturally, economically and politically, Mauritius is closer to India than any other state. Hinduism is the most practiced religion and, at $79m a year, Mauritian exports to India are worth twice those sent to China.
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