Joe Biden pressured the UK to relinquish control of the Chagos Islands due to fears that the US might lose access to a key military airbase, it is understood. In the days following the July general election,

Joe Biden pushed the UK into giving up the Chagos Islands over concerns the US would lose control of an important air base, The Telegraph understands.

The agreement ends decades of dispute over Britain’s last African colony, from which thousands of people were forcibly evicted, while maintaining a key U.S.-British military base there.

The U.K. has agreed to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands, an archipelago of more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius, in a deal to secure the future of a strategically important U.

David Lammy was heckled in the House of Commons as he defended the decision to give up UK control over the Chagos Islands. The Foreign Secretary said the UK Government wants the treaty with Mauritius signed and ratified in 2025,

Writer and broadcaster Esther Krakue says the handing over of Chagos Islands sovereignty to Mauritius shows the United Kingdom has a government of “student activists”.