President once again says Maldives has the right to Chagos

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has once again said that even though the UK-colonized Chagos Islands was handed over to Mauritius, Maldives is the country that has the right to the archipelago.

In an interview given to British tabloid Express.co.uk, President Muizzu spoke on the topic once again, sharing the Maldives' views regarding the Chagos Islands' sovereignty being transferred to Mauritius by the UK in a letter that was sent, along with the transactions that were held surrounding the matter.

President Muizzu stated that he had sent a letter to the UK and had shared this information during the Republic Day 2024 ceremony, with him saying that Maldives has more of a claim to Chagos rather than Mauritius.

The President had said in the interview to Express.co.uk that he had officially shared with the British government the reasons as to why Maldives has the most claim to Chagos and that Maldives believes Chagos should be handed over to them. President Muizzu also said that they had brought this to the attention of the British government and that Chagos has historical connections to Maldives.

"...The Maldives has historical connections to the Chagos Islands – known to us as Foalhavahi - which lie south of Maldivian waters. These connections are based on documental evidence, and we believe gives the Maldives a greater claim than any other country," said President Muizzu.

"Currently we have raised our claim and our concerns with the British government in official correspondence. I cannot disclose the content of these discussions, except to reiterate our confidence that the Maldives has the strongest claim over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands."

While President Muizzu has spoken on the Chagos issue, President of the United States of America (USA) Donald Trump has verbally sounded off that giving away the Chagos Islands is an act of "great stupidity" by the UK.

Maldives' historical connections to the Chagos Islands covers the gravestone with Dhivehi writing being found at Chagos, Mauritius being 1,300 miles from Chagos and Maldives being only 310 miles from the archipelago, along with Mauritius being uninhabited before the 17th century and Maldives having established a connection with the Chagos Islands much earlier.

Mauritius was uninhabited until it had been colonized by the Netherlands, France and then later by the UK, who had brought Europeans and Africans to settle in Mauritius in the 17th century. However, Maldives already had been populated for more than 2,500 years. The gravestone with Dhivehi markings being found in Chagos dates back 900 years, which is before Mauritius had been populated. A former Maldivian King had also claimed sovereignty of Chagos, with documents having been found that fishermen and travelers had stayed at Chagos.

In the work that was done by Mauritius to receive the Chagos Islands, they had submitted a case to the principal judicial court of the United Nations (UN) the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2019, stating that the UK exerting power of Chagos was against international law, with an advisory recommendation being put out that Mauritius has a claim to Chagos. As this decision did not have to be observed, the UK had not yielded their position, with their mindset changing when the pressures of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) had begun siding with Mauritius regarding the matter.

After that, Mauritius had referred to the ICJ's recommendation that Mauritius should have sovereignty over Chagos, with a case being submitted by Mauritius against Maldives to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) regarding the territorial boundary of the sea.

Maldives had stated at ITLOS that this is a procedural case and that as the UK had colonized Chagos, Mauritius has no right to press territorial charges. However, ITLOS denied the Maldives' case submission and ruled in favor of ICJ's recommendation. ITLOS has allocated the disputed overlapping territory of 95,000 square kilometers between Maldives and Mauritius, providing each country with a 200-mile continental shelf. Maldives has been granted 47,232 square kilometers while Mauritius has been given 45,331 square kilometers.

The previous administration faced criticism over its handling of the Chagos Islands issue, particularly concerning a letter sent by then-President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to Mauritius. While the government had opted not to disclose the letter publicly, it was later "leaked" during the presidential election.

The opposition alleged that the letter influenced the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) ruling, which recognized Mauritius' entitlement to the Chagos Islands. They claimed that this led to the Maldives losing part of its territorial waters, with President Muizzu pledging that he would work to recover said waters.