Who is more Guilty of ‘Vann Diego Garcia’ - Pravind Jugnauth or Navin Ramgoolam?
02.06.2025
Pravind Jugnauth and Navin Ramgoolam are fighting over who is guiltier of selling Diego Garcia to the British and USA. But who is more guilty is not the important part. We in LALIT would give them ex aequo on that. We will, in this first detailed article, deal just with what exactly Jugnauth signed away concerning the exercise of sovereignty and what exactly Ramgoolam signed away – sovereignty over both Diego Garcia, and the rest of Chagos – in the document each one signed up to.
The Jugnauth-signed document and the Ramgoolam-signed document each declare Mauritius “is sovereign”, which is good, and then, eyes-wide-open, cede control over the EXERCISE of this sovereignty over Diego Garcia, where the US military base is, and also over the rest of Chagos on the pretext of the impact of any decision at all will have on the efficiency of the said Base.
What is important is that the whole of Chagos is at risk because of this “deal”.
The deal was signed with Sir Keir Starmer in two stages, first by Jugnauth then Ramgoolam. The third stage will be ratification by both the Republic of Mauritius and the United Kingdom. The USA and India will also countersign. The British Defense Ministry site announced that all the “Five Eyes countries” agree to it: UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Note that the right wing in the UK and USA are against the planned Treaty because it declares Mauritius sovereign. In LALIT we are against it because it undermines the real exercise of this sovereignty by Mauritius for 100 years or more to come.
Let us explain this strange duo of documents, which maintain that “Mauritius is sovereign”, but that the UK-USA will exercise this sovereignty – expressed in two different ways, one way in what Jugnauth signed, and another way in what Ramgoolam signed. It is not difficult to understand. It is merely a trap set for Mauritius, in the two different ways of drafting. But, it is the same trap.
The two foundation statements in the two documents are in tension, pulling in opposite directions. The first statement is fine in both. In Jugnauth’s “Joint Statement” with the UK, we read “Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia.” Ramgoolam’s is marginally improved, for what that is worth, and reads: “Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago in its entirety, including Diego Garcia.” Both are categorical. Or so it seems.
The second statement is more nuanced. Jugnauth agrees that Mauritius is “committed to the need, and will agree in the treaty, to ensure the long-term, secure and effective operation of the existing base on Diego Garcia which plays a vital role in regional and global security.” Ramgoolam later agrees that Mauritius “shall not (sic) undermine, prejudice or otherwise interfere with the long-term, secure and effective operation of the Base”. Ramgoolam has managed to get added to this that in doing so “including activities in relation to the Base, there shall be compliance with international law,” whereas “on the basis of international law” in Jugnauth’s document was about negotiations done. Both statements are rash. Having a US military base on our territory condemns our country to being in one “camp”, the imperialist camp of the USA. This is not any old “camp”. It is a belligerent camp. It is often a criminal camp. And it is the camp of an empire. And not any old empire. A falling empire. Jugnauth and Ramgoolam are thus particularly rash, given not only the USA’s habit of illegal wars, but also given the fact that having as President someone like Donald Trump is a reflection of a USA “state” apparatus in severe crisis, and in drastic decline. Why we, the people of Mauritius, who live in a “sovereign democratic state”, should agree in advance with what is done “long term” and “effectively” on this foreign base is unfathomable. And it undermines sovereignty, as we will see when we read the next relevant part of the documents.
So, bearing in mind these two commitments we have quoted: 1) Mauritius is sovereign. 2) The US military base must be free to operate into the long term future, with its security and effectiveness guaranteed, we note that both Prime Ministers, Jugnauth and Ramgoolam, signed up to the second commitment, the dangerous one.
And now, what follows is how BOTH Jugnauth and Ramgoolam effectively sell out on Diego Garcia and on the whole of Chagos as regards the EXERCISE of sovereignty.
Jugnauth, after securing that Mauritius is “sovereign”, signs up to this remarkable absurdity: “For an initial period of 99 years, the UK will be authorised to exercise with respect to Diego Garcia the sovereign rights and authorities of Mauritius required to ensure the continued operation of the base well into the next century”. Mauritius is sovereign. But, the UK will exercise Mauritius’ sovereign rights and authorities “with respect to Diego Garcia”. Notice that UK can exercise any sovereignty necessary “to ensure the continued operation of the base”. In LALIT we shrieked, from the minute we read this phrase, that it is carefully worded as a trap for Mauritius to fall into: note the clumsiness of “with respect to Diego Garcia”. Everyone in Mauritius, other than LALIT, thought, or preferred to think, this meant sovereignty is only to be exercised by the UK over Diego Garcia. We, in LALIT, know that this was not the “real meaning” of the words “with respect to” Diego Garcia. “With respect to” means “with respect to”. Otherwise the Joint Statement would have been worded more simply: Mauritius will exercise sovereignty over the whole of Chagos except for Diego Garcia, where the UK will be authorised to exercise the sovereign rights and authorities of Mauritius for x years. But this has never been, and is still not, the position of the USA. And the USA reigns, for the moment, supreme. Such is the real-life balance of forces.
All this to say that that is where the entire question of sovereignty lies. It lies in its exercise. “Sovereignty” is not a relative term. It “is” or it “is not”. Jugnauth potentially signed away the exercise of sovereignty, i.e. sovereignty itself. For 100 years. And maybe more.
Ramgoolam refused to sign that wording. However, the draft Treaty that he signed is just as bad. It is a 25 page document, 10 pages are the “body” of the Draft Treaty and 15 pages are Annexes, which are part of the Treaty. The Treaty as a whole translates what Jugnauth signed up to into a set of very clearly delineated procedures that cover the EXERCISE of sovereignty over the whole of Chagos. The same kind of ceding of sovereignty is contained in more specific terms. We are sure that many journalists have not studied the Annexes, which is why they do not understand what is going on in the Draft Treaty Ramgoolam signed last week.
Annex I is divided into 2 parts, one headed “Diego Garcia”, which is the same as what Jugnauth signed: “Mauritius authorises the United Kingdom to exercise the rights and authorities of Mauritius with respect to Diego Garcia in accordance with the terms of this Agreement.”
The other heading in Ramgoolam’s draft Treaty is “Chagos Archipelago Beyond Diego Garcia”. It says: “any proposal for development in the land territory of the Chagos Archipelago beyond Diego Garcia” (our emphasis), to take one example, before being approved or proceeded with, requires that Mauritius “conduct a Security Review”, following a procedure. The procedure specified for this, is first that the UK has to agree that the proposal does not risk “undermining, prejudicing or otherwise interfering with the long-term, secure and effective operation of the Base”, and the UK has to agree, if relevant, to any “mitigations to the risks identified” that Mauritius might propose. This has to be discussed in a Joint Commission with the UK. And the USA will be the ultimate voice in the Commission on what concerns its Base. “The Parties agree that the United States of America shall have the right to introduce issues for discussion in the Joint Commission and to designate a representative to attend meetings of the Joint Commission to provide views and advice, including on matters concerning the long-term, secure and effective operation of the Base.”
So, there is the proof.
In both what Jugnauth signed and what Ramgoolam signed, the exercise of sovereignty over both Diego Garcia and “the rest of Chagos” has been handed over to the UK-USA colonizers and illegal occupiers.
In future articles, we will deal with other dangers, including whether there is the right of return, and what happens to freedom of movement in our Republic, under the impending Treaty.
We will also later deal with the fact that all the problems arising from so-called “pirates” at sea, and refugees in small boats, will land squarely under Mauritian sovereignty. There will be no “exercise of sovereignty” by the UK or USA on these potentially huge problems, often caused or exacerbated by the UK-USA’s own foreign policy world-wide.
And we will also deal with the question of the binding UN Pelindaba Treaty for a Nuclear Arms Free Africa.
LALIT
