Chagos: upholding the territorial integrity of the Republic

In February 2019 the International Court of Justice delivered an Advisory Opinion concluding that the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius was unlawful. In May 2019 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 73/295 demanding an end to British administration.

To give effect, in domestic law and in international organisations, to the Chagos as part of Mauritian territory, and to prepare for the return of the Chagossians.

On 12 July 2019, in the National Assembly, he supported the motion incorporating the Chagos, Diego Garcia included, into an electoral constituency. He recalled the Rs 50 million provision made in the Budget to prepare for resettlement and referred to the Mauritian motion at the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission so that the United Kingdom would no longer sit there as a coastal State. In February 2020 the United Nations world map showed the Chagos as Mauritian territory; on 28 January 2021 the Special Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled that Mauritius's sovereignty over the Chagos can be inferred from the Court's determinations.

A decisive step towards international recognition of Mauritian sovereignty, led at the highest level by the Prime Minister and carried forward by Mauritian diplomacy.