The United Kingdom has signed a final agreement to return the last major military base in the Indian Ocean, the Chagos Islands, which it has held for over 200 years, to the African island nation of Mauritius.
Major British media outlets reported that "with the end of British rule over the Chagos Islands, which lasted for 211 years since 1814, it is now the moment when night falls simultaneously over all of Britain's colonies."
According to British Sky News on the 26th (local time), UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed a document on the 22nd transferring sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, which were once a British colony in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius.
The Chagos Islands consist of over 60 islands located in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The UK obtained the islands along with Mauritius through the Treaty of Paris after the Napoleonic Wars in 1814.
In 1965, the UK separated the Chagos Islands from Mauritius three years before Mauritius gained independence, incorporating them into the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). In this process, the British government carried out inhumane measures, forcibly relocating about 2,000 Chagossians who had lived there for generations from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.
Since gaining independence in 1968, Mauritius has consistently claimed sovereignty over the Chagos Islands. After a lengthy legal battle, in 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advised that "British rule over the Chagos Islands is illegal" and that it should be returned to Mauritius without delay. In the same year, a resolution demanding the withdrawal of the UK passed overwhelmingly in the UN General Assembly.
Officials interpreted that the return of the Chagos Islands results from a combination of international pressure, legal judgments, diplomatic efforts by the Mauritius government, and reflections on the era of imperialism.
However, considering the strategic importance of the U.S.-UK joint military base located on the largest island, Diego Garcia, the UK will lease it from Mauritius for at least 99 years. The British government has agreed to pay Mauritius £100.1 million (approximately 190 billion won) annually in rent and for development assistance.
The agreement also includes measures to support the gradual naturalization and resettlement of the indigenous people and their descendants who were forced to leave the Chagos Islands for decades.
The return of the Chagos Islands has created a significant gap in the "belt of the sun" where the sun once followed the British Empire.
According to the science media Popular Science, the Chagos Islands served as a link connecting the Pitcairn Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the east Mediterranean British military bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
When the sun sets over the Pitcairn Islands at the western edge of the British Empire, it rises again over Akrotiri and Dhekelia at the eastern edge, with the Chagos Islands receiving sunlight during the 30-minute gap.
However, beginning from the evening of the 22nd, when the agreement was signed, after the sun completely set over the Pitcairn Islands, sunlight disappeared from all British territories for about 30 minutes. Experts described this as a symbolic event marking the historical end of the British Empire, once referred to as 'the empire on which the sun never sets.'
The number of British territories, excluding the mainland, has now decreased to 13. Many of these are embroiled in territorial disputes like Gibraltar or the Falklands. As international pressure and legal losses continue, the likelihood of losing additional overseas territories, like the Chagos Islands, is reportedly increasing.
In the British conservative camp, there were criticisms that "since it will ultimately be a base rented again, the last remnant of pride has been given away cheaply," alongside calls for the UK to find a new role in the changed international order.
Experts also noted that with the return of the Chagos Islands and the transition to being a 'sun-setting nation,' the UK should abandon its past special imperial status and accept a normal nation status in the international community.
The Guardian stated that "while the UK is forming a loose federation with former colonies that are now independent countries, the political binding and economic community effects are minimal," and that "the UK has become a country that struggles to perform a strategic role unilaterally without a partnership with the United States in terms of security."