Two sentences the 2025 text tried to separate

The text signed in May 2025 hands sovereignty over the archipelago to Mauritius and leases the joint base on Diego Garcia back for 99 years. On the BBC's account the average payment is £101 million ($136 million) a year. The UK government put the net cost at £3.4 billion. In April, after Trump pulled his support, the text was paused indefinitely and had not passed Parliament.[1]

Mauritius argues it was illegally forced to give the islands away in 1965 as the price of independence. In 2019 the International Court of Justice, in a non-binding advisory opinion, found the separation unlawful and said British administration should end as rapidly as possible. Endorsed by the General Assembly, that opinion led the UK to open negotiations in 2022. Every prime minister since Boris Johnson has treated that legal process as a risk to the security of the base.[1]

The objection that hardened on Wednesday

On Wednesday Wes Streeting said the deal is under review because the United States does not support the current draft. Trump's description of it as terrible, to Andy Burnham on Tuesday, was in Streeting's words absolute clarity that the American position on the draft is not changing. No money is to be handed to Mauritius at this stage while officials review the deal. Burnham had also told Navin Ramgoolam that he would keep doing everything possible, with the United States, to ratify it.[1]

Clarity laid on the April pause is what made Wednesday operative. Government sources say Burnham's and Streeting's remarks stay on the earlier line that any deal requires American support. If those sources are right, Wednesday announces that the base's principal user has not accepted the lease. The 2019 opinion was already written.[1]

Three capitals are not yet on one text

The ratification message sent to Ramgoolam and Streeting's refusal to pay at this stage stand in the same week. The advisory opinion has been on the table since 2019. The May 2025 agreement had not passed Parliament, and the United States does not support the current draft. The 99-year lease was written to separate the base from the sovereignty sentence. That separation does not become law without the United States.[1]