It has been quite a week for Diego Garcia, the U.S.-U.K. base that covers the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and East Africa. On Tuesday at the United Nations, President Donald Trump called the British plan to give Mauritius sovereignty over it a “terrible deal,” noting that B-2s striking Iran had to fly all the way from Missouri. The same day, he signed a security pact with Denmark and Greenland’s own government that keeps Danish sovereignty and locks out U.S. adversaries. The next morning, Britain’s defense secretary, Wes Streeting, said the Mauritius treaty “can’t go ahead without American support.” If the treaty cannot proceed without America, America should name its price.

Washington should not help London rescue that treaty. The White House should tell Prime Minister Andy Burnham that American support depends on a new plan, not a redraft with Mauritius. The reason is in the stalled 2025 U.K.-Mauritius treaty. It would put the base on a 99-year lease, extendable by 40 years only if Mauritius agrees. Mauritius could move to terminate it if Britain missed a payment. Britain would have to “expeditiously inform” Mauritius of any armed attack launched from the base on a third state. Robert Midgley of Friends of the British Overseas Territories told Fox News that Britain had already alerted Mauritius to an Iranian operation. London has not confirmed it. If a warning ever moved that way, it would sit one step from Beijing.

Those terms would put America at the mercy of Mauritius, a country with deep ties to China. Its free-trade deal with China, signed in 2019 and in force since 2021, opens more than 130 service subsectors to Chinese firms. China’s Export-Import Bank financed a $260 million airport expansion. China’s ambassador publicly welcomed the handover. Policy Exchange and the Heritage Foundation warn that a Mauritian flag on the outer islands would still leave room for dual-use civilian cover and for Chinese intelligence collection near the runway. That is not a landlord the United States should accept for this base.

The workaround floated by the White House in June, letting Britain transfer sovereignty and then buying the islands from Mauritius, makes this worse. Mauritius answered within a day that its sovereignty is “nonnegotiable.” Do not buy the islands from Mauritius after the handover. Once Mauritius has the title and a century of British rent, it has no reason to sell. That is a sucker play, not a strategy.

Britain should drop the treaty and keep British sovereignty. Diego Garcia stays a joint U.S.-U.K. base under an updated version of the 1966 arrangements, not a lease from a third country. That update should look like last week’s Greenland deal by removing any expiration date of the treaty. Bar any non-NATO military presence anywhere in the archipelago. Give London and Washington each a veto over sensitive non-NATO investment. Specify that the U.S. has guaranteed use of the facility, including for operations against third countries, so London cannot repeat February’s refusal. In February, Britain briefly withheld Diego Garcia from U.S. strikes on Iran, then relented. A British landlord can be leaned on. A sovereign Mauritius with deep ties to China, collecting British rent, would have no reason to bend.

TRUMP DIDN’T ‘SETTLE FOR LESS’ ON GREENLAND. HE GOT EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTED

That package still has to pass a Labour House of Commons. The Labour Party signed the Mauritius treaty as decolonization. The people who actually belong there are the Chagossians, expelled between 1968 and 1973 so this base could be built. Letting them go home is a better version of that vote. Diego Garcia and a declared security perimeter stay military. The Chagossians can be offered a return to the outer islands, Peros Banhos and the Salomon group, about 135 miles north of Diego Garcia, with a resettlement package. They would hold a right of abode and run civil life on those atolls. London would keep defense, foreign policy, and the border. That is how you keep a foreign antenna away from the runway. Britain rejected resettlement in 2016, citing cost among other reasons. KPMG cost a small return in the low millions a year. The Mauritius treaty costs at least $160 million a year for 99 years. The smaller bill would go to the people Britain expelled.

The White House should tell Burnham the price of American support is this package, not a redraft with Mauritius. Burnham should take it. Keep the title. Lock out non-NATO bases and money. Bring the Chagossians home to the outer islands. Do not rent Diego Garcia from Mauritius.

Brian McDonald is a geopolitical and defense analyst and a postgraduate in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London.