The United Kingdom agreed on Thursday to give up control of islands that hold a secretive U.S. military base to

The British government struck a deal with Mauritius to hand over the cluster of 58 tiny islands in the Indian Ocean known as the Chagos archipelago.

The UK has agreed to give up sovereignty of a group of islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius in return for securing the future of a UK-US military base situated on Diego Garcia. The deal over the British Indian Ocean Territory,

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the agreement will secure the future of the base at Diego Garcia, the largest in the chain of remote islands off the tip of India that has been under British control for over 50 years.

Britain on Thursday said it would give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, but under what President Joe Biden called a "historic agreement" will keep a strategic Indian

Under the deal reached by Sir Keir Starmer with Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) or Chagos Islands is to be handed back more than five decades after the rest of Mauritius won independence from the UK.