May 22 (UPI) -- The British government signed-off Thursday on ceding the Chagos Islands back over to Mauritius after a last-minute court ruling delayed the transfer of international territory.
"The public interest and the interests of the United Kingdom would be substantially prejudiced by the grant or continuance of interim relief," British High Court Judge Daniel Chamberlain ruled in discharging the injunction.
Thursday's signing ceremony ceding the British-run Indian Ocean archipelago back over to its neighboring island nation of Mauritius was temporarily called off at the last moment after Britain's High Court issued an injunction in the middle of the night to islanders opposing the more than $4 billion agreement.
The more than $135.6 million yearly lease for Diego Garcia, in a number revealed Thursday for the first time, will have a net value of cumulative payments of around $4.5 billion to Mauritius.
But the 11th-hour legal act paused the ceremony with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mauritian government representatives.
"On-call" Justice Julian Goose granted the temporary stay at 2:25 a.m. local time to two Chagos petitioners, ruling that the defendant, Britain's Home Office, must "maintain the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom over the British Indian Ocean Territory until further order," pending a further hearing during working hours Thursday.
"It is with great emotion and great pride that we signed the historic agreement on the Chagos," Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam said in a Facebook post, calling the now finalized agreement a "major step forward" for Mauritius, adding how "at no point have we compromised our national sovereignty."
Under the agreement, Britain transferred sovereignty to Mauritius -- home to a giant U.K.-U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia --but will retain control of Diego Garcia by leasing it back in its 99-year, multi-billion dollar deal with an option clause to renew another 40 years.
Meanwhile, the United States will pay Britain for use of the base, but that figure has not been made public.
The Mauritian prime minster said Thursday will be "etched in our history as the day in which truth and justice prevailed."
"This is not just a victory, but a clear recognition of our legitimate right on the Chagos archipelago," he said. "After years of fighting and negotiations, Mauritius is finally being listened to and respected."
Stuart Luke, legal counsel for Beatrice Pompe, one of the claimants, told the Financial Times that his client was "deeply concerned that the government has chosen to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands without any consultation or protections for those that are indigenous to the islands."
A British government spokesman declined to comment at the time but insisted the deal with its former colony was "the right thing to protect the British people and our national security."
"Our country is elated that this 60-year struggle is finally over, especially for our brothers and sisters who were forced to leave their homes," Mauritian Attorney General Gavin Glover told the BBC in celebrating the deal signing.
Diego Garcia inhabitants have been engaged in a decades-long legal battle against their forcible displacement during the construction of the base throughout the late 1960s, mainly to Mauritius, the Seychelles and Britain, with the Chagos Islands split off from Mauritius when it became independent in 1968.
Initially, the United States welcomed the deal when it was struck in October and will see the other 57 currently uninhabited islands in the archipelago opened up for settlement. Diego Garcia, however, will remain out of bounds to its former residents and their descendants on "security grounds."
Then-U.S. President Joe Biden called the deal "a clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes."
But the deal was temporarily delayed after President Donald Trump won back the White House in November.
Trump later gave his backing in February during a visit to Washington by Starmer, despite warnings from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior Republicans who say Mauritius' links to China posed a "serious security threat" to U.S. national security.
The American president had "a feelings its going to work out very well," Trump said about the deal at his meeting with Britain's Labor Party leader Starmer.
However, Rubio said Thursday on social media the agreement secured the "long-term, stable and effective operation of the joint US-UK military facility at Diego Garcia, which is critical to regional and global security."
Joining a protest by Chagos residents outside Parliament, the opposition Conservative Party's shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel called Thursday's legal intervention "a humiliation" for Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
"Their rights, views and voices over the future of Chagos have been ignored by Labour which continues to cause distress and uncertainty for this wonderful community," she wrote in a post on X.
"Labour's Chagos Surrender Deal is bad for our defence and security interests, bad for British taxpayers and bad for British Chagossians," said Patel.
The deal has also been condemned by Human Rights Watch, which has demanded Britain and the United States pay reparations after a 2023 report alleged the "forced displacement of the Chagossians and ongoing abuses amount to crimes against humanity committed by a colonial power against an Indigenous people."
On Thursday, Britain's Conservative Party leader was critical of the agreement, saying Chagos had been British since 1814 and hosts a "vital" military base.
"Surrendering it to Mauritius is an act of national self-harm," Kemi Badenoch, an MP from North West Essex, posted on X.
"It leaves us more exposed to China, and ignores the will of the Chagossian people," she added, saying Britain is "paying billions to do so."
