Streeting held the Diego Garcia payments at this stage
Wes Streeting said the Chagos deal as now drafted does not proceed without American support, and that Mauritius payments are not made at this stage. The signed text transfers sovereignty while leaving a 99-year lease on Diego Garcia. The BBC says the defence secretary is reviewing the deal, and it puts the average payment at 101 million pounds a year.
Geopolitics··Night
Payments stop at this stage
Wes Streeting said the Chagos deal as now drafted does not proceed without American support, and that Mauritius payments are not made at this stage. The signed text transfers sovereignty while leaving a 99-year lease on Diego Garcia. The schedule The Guardian reported sets 165 million pounds for Mauritius over the first 3 years and 120 million pounds a year from year 4. Streeting called the payment the price of long-term use of Diego Garcia. The new fact is that the payment stops at this stage. The lease and the sovereignty transfer remain the signed text. What changed on 23 September is the money: it is not being paid while the draft still lacks American support.[1], [2]
The schedule behind the held payment
The Guardian's schedule is 165 million pounds over the first 3 years and 120 million pounds a year from year 4. The BBC puts the average payment at 101 million pounds a year. The two figures answer different questions. One is the stepped schedule in the text The Guardian reported. The other is the BBC's average, 101 million pounds a year. Neither figure is a payment that went out on 23 September. Streeting's statement is that Mauritius payments are not made at this stage. The text is rewritten first with Washington and Mauritius. The defence secretary is reviewing the deal because US support is absent, which the BBC also reports, after Donald Trump called the deal terrible. The deal was paused in April, on the BBC's account, so the Wednesday decision sits on an earlier stop, not on a first look at the file.[1], [2]
The review is of a signed text
The BBC says the defence secretary is reviewing the deal because US support is absent. The Guardian's account of the same review is that the deal as now drafted does not proceed without American support, and that the text is rewritten first with Washington and Mauritius. The signed text still transfers sovereignty and still leaves a 99-year lease on Diego Garcia. Holding the payments does not, on either account, tear up that signature. It stops the Mauritius money at this stage while the support Streeting named is missing. Trump's criticism was not new, on the Guardian's telling. The new fact is the payment stop. The BBC dates a pause to April and states an average of 101 million pounds a year, which is the figure to read beside the Guardian's 165 million pounds over 3 years and 120 million pounds a year from year 4.[1], [2]
