Why would the Biden-Harris administration agree to give an important U.S. military base to a country that is becoming increasingly close to the Chinese Communist Party?
Honestly, why? There is no reward for being stupid.
The Chagos Archipelago consists of more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean, including the island of Diego Garcia. Diego Garcia is home to a joint British and American military base that is vital to our national security operations in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
The importance of the base at Diego Garcia cannot be overstated. Diego Garcia is one of the only bases in the world where our military can reload submarines. The base also houses several Navy ships and long-range bomber aircraft that we use to carry out missions around the world. These key missions have made it a top target of Chinese Communist Party spies.
Today, we know our assets on Diego Garcia are secure because the Chagos Islands are a British territory. The United Kingdom controls the island of Diego Garcia and the surrounding water to protect our shared missions.
Our secure arrangement, however, just imploded. The United Kingdom announced that it will turn over control of the Chagos Islands to the island nation of Mauritius. The decision came after a years-long pressure campaign from members of the United Nations citing an International Court of Justice ruling that the United Kingdom wrongfully separated the Chagos Islands from Mauritius when it granted Mauritius its independence in 1968. The ruling by the International Court of Justice is neither binding nor enforceable against the United Kingdom or the United States.
This decision wasn’t about righting the wrongs that the United Kingdom supposedly committed against the people of Chagos, though. Chagossians consider themselves an indigenous people. The Chagos Islands and Mauritius — which are more than 1,200 miles apart — speak different versions of Creole and have no shared pre-colonial historic ties. They are, for all practical purposes, strangers.
Peter Lamb, the member of Parliament who represents the largest community of Chagossians in Britain, said he didn’t know a single person who wanted the Chagos Islands to fall under Mauritius’s control. Moreover, the Mauritian government won’t even guarantee that it will allow Chagossians to visit the islands.
So why? The true purpose of the United Nation’s campaign was to shame the United Kingdom for having any presence in Africa at all. Sadly, it worked.
Under the new deal, Mauritius claims it will give the United Kingdom a 99-year lease so British and American forces can keep our base on Diego Garcia. The longevity of that lease, however, is the least of our concerns. Mauritius is now also responsible for protecting Diego Garcia from Chinese espionage efforts.
Mauritius is a beautiful island full of wonderful people, but it is not a strong nation. The Chinese Communist Party will use every bit of its power to influence Mauritius’s government. When the United Kingdom signs this treaty with Mauritius, we won’t have a clue who is vying to jeopardize the security of Diego Garcia.
Chinese spies have already accessed American bases as many as 100 times in recent years. With wars raging around the world, this is the worst possible time to endanger the safety and security of our base on Diego Garcia. Yet President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris did nothing to stop this deal from moving forward. In fact, they celebrated the decision.
The deal between the United Kingdom and Mauritius would not have happened if the U.S. had objected. Diego Garcia is far too important for this negotiation to take place without the Biden-Harris administration’s seal of approval.
Biden and Harris either truly believe that the government of Mauritius has the ability and the courage to stand up to China to ensure the security of Diego Garcia, or they withheld their objections to avoid being criticized by woke U.N. activists if they stood up for the American people’s best interests.
Once the United Kingdom cedes sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, there’s no going back. You can’t make this cat walk backwards. The fate of the base on Diego Garcia will be in the hands of Mauritius’s government. This is one mess no future administration can clean up.
The American people deserve to know why Biden and Harris allowed this irreversible deal to move forward. Congress must hold the Biden-Harris administration accountable for this short-sighted and dangerous decision.
So, I repeat: Why? Why put American interests at risk? Why help the Chinese Communist Party?
John Kennedy is the junior senator from Louisiana. This op-ed originally appeared at The Hill.