&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "'China, Russia have noticed this weakness': Trump slams UK for Chagos deal with Mauritius")
US President Donald Trump accused the United Kingdom on Tuesday (Jan 20) of "great stupidity" for a deal to hand the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. Trump, who previously endorsed the deal, has now made a major U-turn. The agreement will see Britain hand back the archipelago to its former colony and pay to lease a key US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island. Britain kept control of theChagosIslands after Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s. In 2019, the International Court of Justice recommended that Britain hand the archipelago to Mauritius after decades of legal battles.
"The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. Linking this issue to Russia and China again, Trump claimed that both the countries have witnessed United Kingdom's “weakness.” “Shockingly, our “brilliant” NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER. There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
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Trump's Greenland push
It all started soon after US strike on Caracas and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Trump claimed that making the Danish territory part of the United States would serve US national security interests, given its strategic location on the Arctic. In a Truth Social post, Trump shared a map of United States showing Greenland and Canada as its part. This comes amid Trump’s massive push to take over Greenland citing ‘national security.’ In the post, Trump is seen seated inside the Oval Office, with NATO leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, Italy's Giorgia Meloni, UK PM Keir Starmer President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, among others.
