Diego Garcia

Diego Garcia is the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago. It has been used as a joint UK–U.S. military base since the 1970s, following the expulsion of the Chagossians by the UK government. The Chagos Islands are set to become a former British overseas territory — a treaty to transfer sovereignty from the UK to Mauritius was signed on 22 May 2025, with a provision that the military base at the island would remain under British control for at least 99 years.

Located just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia lies east of Tanzania, east-southeast of Somalia, south of the Maldives, southwest of India, west-southwest of Sumatra, northwest of Australia, and northeast of Mauritius Island. Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, an underwater mountain range that includes the Lakshadweep, the Maldives, and the other 60 small islands of the Chagos Archipelago. The island observes UTC+6 year-round.

Diego Garcia was discovered by Portuguese sailors in 1512 and remained uninhabited until the French began using it as a leper colony and for coconut plantations in the late 18th century. After the Napoleonic Wars, the island was transferred to British control. It remained part of Mauritius until 1965, when it became part of the newly formed British Indian Ocean Territory.

In 1966, Diego Garcia had a population of 924, mostly contract workers employed in coconut plantations. However, between 1968 and 1973, the Chagossian inhabitants were forcibly removed to make way for the military base. In 2019, the International Court of Justice ruled that the UK's administration of the Chagos Archipelago was illegal, a decision supported by the United Nations, though the UK has dismissed the ruling as non-binding.

Diego Garcia remains the only inhabited island of the BIOT, with its population consisting of military personnel and contractors. It is one of two critical U.S. bomber bases in the Indo-Pacific region, alongside Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. It is nicknamed the "Footprint of Freedom" by the US Navy due to its shape and strategic location in the Indian Ocean.

History

Before European arrival

No tangible evidence exists of people on Diego Garcia before the arrival of Europeans. There is speculation about visits during the Austronesian diaspora around AD 700, as some say the old Maldivian name for the islands originated from Malagasy. Arabs, who reached Lakshadweep and Maldives around AD 900, may have visited the Chagos. Southern Maldivian oral tradition tells of occasional traders and fishermen marooned on, and later rescued from, Foalhavahi () Chagos.

European arrival

The uninhabited islands were discovered by the Portuguese navigator, explorer, and diplomat Pedro Mascarenhas in 1512, first named as Dom Garcia, in honour of his patron, Dom Garcia de Noronha when he was detached from the Portuguese India Armadas during his voyage of 1512–1513. Another Portuguese expedition with a Spanish explorer of Andalusian origin, Diego García de Moguer, rediscovered the island in 1544 and named it after himself. Garcia de Moguer died the same year on the return trip to Portugal in the Indian Ocean, off the South African coast. The misnomer "Diego" could have been made unwittingly by the British ever since, as they copied the Portuguese maps. It is assumed that the island was named after one of its first two discoverers—the one by the name of Garcia, the other with name Diego. Also, a cacography of the saying (literally 'Thank God') is eligible for the attribution of the atoll. Although the Cantino planisphere (1504) and the Ruysch map (1507) clearly delineate the Maldive Islands, giving them the same names, they do not show any islands to the south which can be identified as the Chagos archipelago.

The Sebastian Cabot map (Antwerp 1544) shows a number of islands to the south which may be the Mascarene Islands. The first map which identifies and names "''Los Chagos''" (in about the right position) is that of Pierre Desceliers ( Dieppe 1550), although Diego Garcia is not named. An island called "Don Garcia" appears on the of Abraham Ortelius (Antwerp 1570), together with "Dos Compagnos", slightly to the north. It may be the case that "Don Garcia" was named after Garcia de Noronha, although no evidence exists to support this. The island is also labelled "Don Garcia" on Mercator's '' Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigatium Emendate'' (Duisburg 1569). However, on the of Jodocus Hondius (London 1589), "Don Garcia" mysteriously changes its name to "I. de Dio Gratia", while the "I. de Chagues" appears close by.

The first map to delineate the island under its present name, Diego Garcia, is the ''World Map'' of Edward Wright (London 1599), possibly as a result of misreading ''Dio'' (or simply "D.") as Diego, and Gratia as Garcia. The of Hendrik Hondius II (Antwerp 1630) repeats Wright's use of the name, which is then proliferated on all subsequent Dutch maps of the period, and to the present day.

Settlement of the island

Diego Garcia and the rest of the Chagos islands were uninhabited until the late 18th century. In 1778, the French Governor of Mauritius granted Monsieur Dupuit de la Faye the island of Diego Garcia, and evidence exists of temporary French visits to collect coconuts and fish. Edis (2004), p. 29. Several Frenchmen living in "a dozen huts" abandoned Diego Garcia when the British East India Company attempted to establish a settlement there in April 1786. The supplies of the 275 settlers were overwhelmed by 250 survivors of the wreck of the British East Indian Ship ''Atlas'' in May, and the colony failed in October. Edis (2004), p. 32. Following the departure of the British, the French colony of Mauritius began marooning lepers on the island, and in 1793, the French established a coconut plantation using slave labour, which exported cordage made from coir (coconut fibre), and sea cucumbers as a far-eastern delicacy.

Diego Garcia became a colony of the UK after the Napoleonic Wars as part of the Treaty of Paris (1814), and from 1814 to 1965 it was administered from Mauritius; the main plantations were at East Point, the main settlement, Minni Minni, north of East Point, and Pointe Marianne, on the western rim, all on the lagoon side of the atoll. The workers lived at each and at villages scattered around the atoll.

From 1881 until 1888, the atoll hosted two coaling stations for steamships crossing the Indian Ocean.D. R. Stoddart (1971): "Settlement and development of Diego Garcia". In: Stoddart & Taylor (1971), pp. 209–218.

In 1882, the French-financed, Mauritian-based (the 'Oilmaking Company of Diego and Peros'), consolidated all the plantations in the Chagos under its control.

20th century

In 1914, the island was visited by the German light cruiser halfway through its commerce-raiding cruise during the early months of World War I.

In 1942, the British opened RAF Station Diego Garcia and established an advanced flying boat unit at the East Point Plantation, staffed and equipped by No. 205 and No. 240 Squadrons, then stationed on Ceylon. Both Catalina and Sunderland aircraft were flown during the course of World War II in search of Japanese and German submarines and surface raiders. At Cannon Point, two naval guns were installed by a Royal Marines detachment. In February 1942, the mission was to protect the small Royal Navy base and Royal Air Force station located on the island from Japanese attack. Operation of the guns was later taken over by Mauritian and Indian Coastal Artillery troops. Following the conclusion of hostilities, the station was closed on 30 April 1946.

In 1962, the Chagos Agalega Company of the British colony of Seychelles purchased the Société Huilière de Diego et Peros and moved company headquarters to Seychelles. Edis (2004), p. 82.

In the early 1960s, the UK was withdrawing its military presence from the Indian Ocean, not including the airfield at RAF Gan to the north of Diego Garcia in the Maldives (which remained open until 1976), and agreed to permit the United States to establish a naval communication station on one of its island territories there. The United States requested an unpopulated island belonging to the UK to avoid political difficulties with newly independent countries, and ultimately the UK and United States agreed that Diego Garcia was a suitable location. Sand (2009), p. 3.

Purchase by the United Kingdom

To accomplish the UK–US mutual defence strategy, in November 1965, the UK purchased the Chagos Archipelago, which includes Diego Garcia, from the then self-governing colony of Mauritius for £3 million to create the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), with the intent of ultimately closing the plantations to provide the uninhabited British territory from which the United States would conduct its military activities in the region.

In April 1966, the British government bought the entire assets of the Chagos Agalega Company in the BIOT for £600,000 and administered them as a government enterprise and immediately leased the plantations back to Chagos Agalega while awaiting United States funding of the proposed facilities, with an interim objective of paying for the administrative expenses of the new territory. However, the plantations, both under their previous private ownership and under government administration, proved consistently unprofitable due to the introduction of new oils and lubricants in the international marketplace, and the establishment of vast coconut plantations in the East Indies and the Philippines and the company terminated the lease at the end of 1967.

On 30 December 1966, the United States and the UK executed an agreement through an Exchange of Notes which permitted the United States to use the BIOT for defence purposes for 50 years until December 2016, followed by a 20-year extension (to 2036) as long as neither party gave notice of termination in a two-year window (December 2014 – December 2016) and the UK may decide on what additional terms to extend the agreement. No monetary payment was made from the United States to the UK as part of this agreement or any subsequent amendment. Rather, the United Kingdom received a US$14-million discount from the United States on the acquisition of submarine-launched Polaris missiles per a now-declassified addendum to the 1966 agreement.

Arrival of the U.S. Navy

To the United States, Diego Garcia was a prime territory for setting up a foreign military base. According to Stuart Barber—a civilian working for the US Navy at the Pentagon—Diego Garcia was located far away from any potential threats, it was low in a native population and it was an island that was not sought after by other countries as it lacked economic interest. To Barber, Diego Garcia and other acquired islands would play a key role in maintaining US dominance. Here Barber designed the strategic island concept, where the US would obtain as many less populated islands as possible for military purposes. According to Barber, this was the only way to ensure security for a foreign base. Diego Garcia is often referred to as "Fantasy Island" for its seclusion.

The key component in obtaining Diego Garcia was the perceived lack of a native population on the island. Uninhabited until the late 18th century, Diego Garcia had no indigenous population. Its only inhabitants were European overseers who managed the coconut plantations for their absentee landowners and contract workers mostly of African, Indian, and Malay ancestry, known as Chagossians, who had lived and worked on the plantations for several generations. Prior to setting up a military base, the United States government was informed by the British government—which owned the island—that Diego Garcia had a population of hundreds. The eventual number of Chagossians numbered around 1,000.

Regardless of the size of the population, the Chagossians had to be removed from the island before the base could be constructed. In 1968, the first tactics were implemented to decrease the population of Diego Garcia. Those who left the island—either for vacation or medical purposes—were not allowed to return, and those who stayed could obtain only restricted food and medical supplies. This tactic was in hope that those that stayed would leave "willingly". One of the tactics used was ordering all Chagossian dogs to be killed.

In March 1971, United States Naval construction battalions arrived on Diego Garcia to begin the construction of the communications station and an airfield. To satisfy the terms of an agreement between the UK and the United States for an uninhabited island, the plantation on Diego Garcia was closed in October of that year. Sand (2009), p. 24. The plantation workers and their families were relocated to the plantations on Peros Banhos and Salomon atolls to the northwest. The by-then-independent Mauritian government refused to accept the islanders without payment, and in 1974, the UK gave the Mauritian government an additional £650,000 to resettle the islanders. Sand (2009), p. 25. Those who still remained on the island of Diego Garcia between 1971 and 1973 were forced onto cargo ships that were heading to Mauritius and the Seychelles.

By 1973, construction of the Naval Communications Station was complete. In the early 1970s, setbacks to United States military capabilities in the region including the fall of Saigon, victory of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the closure of the Peshawar Air Station listening post in Pakistan and Kagnew Station in Eritrea, the ''Mayaguez'' incident, and the build-up of Soviet naval presence in Aden and a Soviet airbase at Berbera, Somalia, caused the United States to request, and the UK to approve, permission to build a fleet anchorage and enlarged airfield on Diego Garcia, Edis (2004), p. 90. and the Seabees doubled the number of workers constructing these facilities.

Following the fall of the Shah of Iran and the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979–1980, the West became concerned with ensuring the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, and the United States received permission for a $400-million expansion of the military facilities on Diego Garcia consisting of two parallel runways, expansive parking aprons for heavy bombers, 20 new anchorages in the lagoon, a deep-water pier, port facilities for the largest naval vessels in the U.S. and British fleets, aircraft hangars, maintenance buildings and an air terminal, a fuel storage area, and billeting and messing facilities for thousands of sailors and support personnel. The closure of the U.S. bases in the Philippines in the early 1990s brought many workers from Subic Bay and Clark Air Base to Diego Garcia.

21st century

On 23 June 2017, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted in favour of referring the territorial dispute between Mauritius and the UK to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in order to clarify the legal status of the Chagos Islands archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The motion was approved by a majority vote with 94 voting for and 15 against.

In February 2019, the ICJ in The Hague ruled that the United Kingdom must transfer the islands to Mauritius as they were not legally separated from the latter in 1965. The UK Foreign Office said the ruling is not legally binding. In May 2019, the United Nations General Assembly affirmed the decision of the International Court of Justice and demanded that the United Kingdom withdraw its colonial administration from the Islands and cooperate with Mauritius to facilitate the resettlement of Mauritian nationals in the archipelago. In a written statement, the U.S. government said that neither the Americans nor the British have any plans to discontinue use of the military base on Diego Garcia. The statement said in a footnote: "In 2016, there were discussions between the United Kingdom and the United States concerning the continuing importance of the joint base. Neither party gave notice to terminate and the agreement remains in force until 2036".

In June 2020, a Mauritian official offered to allow the United States to retain its military base on the island if Mauritius succeeded in regaining sovereignty over the Chagos archipelago.

Chagos Marine Protected Area

On 1 April 2010, the Chagos Marine Protected Area (MPA) was declared to cover the waters around the Chagos Archipelago. However, Mauritius objected, stating this was contrary to its legal rights, and on 18 March 2015, in light of the '' Mauritius v. United Kingdom'' case, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that the Chagos Marine Protected Area was illegal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as Mauritius had legally binding rights to fish in the waters surrounding the Chagos Archipelago, to an eventual return of the Chagos Archipelago, and to the preservation of any minerals or oil discovered in or near the Chagos Archipelago prior to its return.

Transfer to Mauritius

On 3 October 2024, the UK prime minister Keir Starmer announced in a statement with the Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth that the UK will hand over the Chagos islands to Mauritius. The joint base on the island will stay, with the UK initially taking a 99-year lease of the base from Mauritius. Mauritius will be allowed to begin resettlement on the Chagos Archipelago, but not on Diego Garcia due to the sensitive nature of the base. US president Joe Biden welcomed the agreement, saying that it was a "clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes". The deal was put on hold following the 2024 United States presidential election to allow consideration from the new incoming administration. On 1 April 2025, the new administration approved letting treaty negotiations continue.

On 22 May 2025, Starmer signed a formal agreement on the transfer of sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Under the terms of the deal, the strategic atoll of Diego Garcia and its surrounding buffer zone are immediately leased back to the UK. This arrangement permits the continued operation of the joint UK/US base on the island for the next 99 years, with an additional 40-year extension and a subsequent right of first refusal.

In June 2025, according to the British Conservatives, the restitution agreement will cost the British taxpayer more than the agreement to return the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius was expected to.

Inhabitants

Diego Garcia had no permanent inhabitants when discovered by the Spanish explorer Diego García de Moguer in the 16th century, then in the service of Portugal, and this remained the case until it was settled as a French colony in 1793.

French settlement

Most inhabitants of Diego Garcia through the period 1793–1971 were plantation workers, but also included Franco-Mauritian managers, Indo-Mauritian administrators, Mauritian and Seychellois contract employees, and in the late 19th century, Chinese and Somali employees.

A distinct Creole culture called the Îlois, which means "islanders" in French Creole, evolved from these workers. The Îlois, now called Chagos Islanders or Chagossians since the late-1990s, were descended primarily from slaves brought to the island from Madagascar by the French between 1793 and 1810, and Malay slaves from the slave market on Pulo Nyas, an island off the northwest coast of Sumatra, from around 1820 until the slave trade ended following the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. The Îlois also evolved a French-based Creole dialect now called Chagossian Creole.

Throughout their recorded history, the plantations of the Chagos Archipelago had a population of approximately 1,000 individuals, about two-thirds of whom lived on Diego Garcia. A peak population of 1,142 on all islands was recorded in 1953.

The primary industry throughout the island's colonial period consisted of coconut plantations producing copra and/or coconut oil, until closure of the plantations and forced relocation of the inhabitants in October 1971. For a brief period in the 1880s, it served as a coaling station for steamships transiting the Indian Ocean from the Suez Canal to Australia.

Expulsion of 1971

All the inhabitants of Diego Garcia were forcibly resettled to other islands in the Chagos Archipelago, Mauritius or Seychelles by 1971 to satisfy the requirements of a UK/United States Exchange of Notes signed in 1966 to depopulate the island when the United States constructed a base upon it. No current agreement exists on how many of the evacuees met the criteria to be an Îlois, and thus be an indigenous person at the time of their removal, but the UK and Mauritian governments agreed in 1972 that 426 families, numbering 1,151 individuals, were due compensation payments as exiled Îlois. The total number of people certified as Îlois by the Mauritian Government's Îlois Trust Fund Board in 1982 was 1,579.

Fifteen years after the last expulsion, the Chagossians received compensation from the British, totalling $6,000 per person; some Chagossians received nothing. The British expulsion action remains in litigation . Today, Chagossians remain highly impoverished and are living as "marginalised" outsiders on the island of Mauritius and the Seychelles.

After 1971

Between 1971 and 2001, the only residents on Diego Garcia were UK and US military personnel and civilian employees of those countries. These included contract employees from the Philippines and Mauritius, including some Îlois. During combat operations from the atoll against Afghanistan (2001–2006) and Iraq (2003–2006), a number of allied militaries were based on the island including Australian, Japanese, and the Republic of Korea. According to David Vine, "Today, at any given time, 3,000 to 5,000 US troops and civilian support staff live on the island." The inhabitants today do not rely on the island and the surrounding waters for sustenance. Although some recreational fishing for consumption is permitted, all other food is shipped in by sea or air.

In 2004, US Navy recruitment literature described Diego Garcia as being one of the world's best-kept secrets, boasting great recreational facilities, exquisite natural beauty, and outstanding living conditions.

Since October 2021 there have been asylum seekers on Diego Garcia.

Governance

Originally colonised by the French, Diego Garcia was ceded, along with the rest of the Chagos Archipelago, to the United Kingdom in the Treaty of Paris (1814) at the conclusion of a portion of the Napoleonic Wars. Diego Garcia and the Chagos Archipelago were administered by the colonial government on the island of Mauritius until 1965, when the UK purchased them from the self-governing colony of Mauritius for £3 million, and declared them to be a separate British Overseas Territory. Edis (2004), p. 84. The British Indian Ocean Territory administration was moved to Seychelles following the independence of Mauritius in 1968 until the independence of Seychelles in 1976, Edis (2004), p. 80. and to a desk in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London since. An agreement signed by the United Kingdom and Mauritius on 22 May 2025, will see sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago returned to Mauritius on the condition that Diego Garcia will continue to be administered by the United Kingdom for at least 99 years.

2025 UK-Mauritius Agreement

Under the terms of the UK-Mauritius Agreement signed in May 2025, Mauritius is to have sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago in its entirety, including Diego Garcia. The United Kingdom is granted administrative rights over Diego Garcia, including a 12 nautical mile zone surrounding it, as required to maintain its military bases on the island for a period of at least 99 years. The United Kingdom is responsible for the defence and security of the island. The United Kingdom has criminal and civil jurisdiction in relation to the operation of the bases on the island. Mauritius has jurisdiction over its nationals and persons not connected to the bases. The United Kingdom may not issue coins or postage stamps for the island nor register births, deaths or marriages of persons not connected to the bases. The island's natural and marine resources belong to Mauritius which also maintains responsibility for environmental conservation and management. Exiled Chagossians and their descendants are not permitted to return to the island.

Administration as part of the British Indian Ocean Territory

Diego Garcia is the only inhabited island in the British Indian Ocean Territory, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom, usually abbreviated as "BIOT". The Government of the BIOT consists of a commissioner appointed by King Charles III. The commissioner is based in London, resident in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and is assisted by an administrator and small staff.

The UK represents the territory internationally. A local government as normally envisioned does not exist. Rather, the administration is represented in the territory by the officer commanding British Forces on Diego Garcia, the "Brit rep". Laws and regulations are promulgated by the commissioner and enforced in the BIOT by Brit rep.

Of major concern to the BIOT administration is the relationship with the United States military forces resident on Diego Garcia. An annual meeting called "The Pol-Mil Talks" (for "political-military") of all concerned is held at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London to resolve pertinent issues. These resolutions are formalised by an "Exchange of Letters".

Neither the US nor the UK recognises Diego Garcia as being subject to the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty, which lists BIOT as covered by the treaty. It is not publicly known whether nuclear weapons have ever been stored on the island. Noam Chomsky and Peter Sand have observed and emphasised that the US and UK stance is blocking the implementation of the treaty.

Transnational political issues

There are two transnational political issues which affect Diego Garcia and the BIOT, through the British government.

*The island state of Mauritius claims the Chagos Archipelago (which is conterminous with the BIOT), including Diego Garcia. A subsidiary issue is the Mauritian opposition to the UK Government's declaration of 1 April 2010 that the BIOT is a marine protected area with fishing and extractive industry (including oil and gas exploration) prohibited.
*The issue of compensation and repatriation of the former inhabitants, exiled since 1973, continues in litigation and as of August 2010 had been submitted to the European Court of Human Rights by a group of former residents. Some groups allege that Diego Garcia and its territorial waters out to have been restricted from public access without permission of the BIOT Government since 1971.

On 3 November 2022, the British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly announced that the UK and Mauritius had decided to begin negotiations on sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory, taking into account international legal proceedings. Both states had agreed to ensure the continued operation of the joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia.

Prison site allegations

In 2015, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, said Diego Garcia was used by the CIA for "nefarious activities". He said that he had heard from three US intelligence sources that Diego Garcia was used as "a transit site where people were temporarily housed, let us say, and interrogated from time to time" and, "What I heard was more along the lines of using it as a transit location when perhaps other places were full or other places were deemed too dangerous or insecure, or unavailable at the moment".

In June 2004, the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw stated that United States authorities had repeatedly assured him that no detainees had passed in transit through Diego Garcia or were disembarked there.

Diego Garcia was first rumoured to have been one of the locations of the CIA's black sites in 2005. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of the " high-value detainees" suspected to have been held in Diego Garcia. In October 2007, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the British Parliament announced that it would launch an investigation of continued allegations of a prison camp on Diego Garcia, which it claimed were twice confirmed by comments made by retired U.S. Army general Barry McCaffrey. On 31 July 2008, an unnamed former White House official alleged that the United States had imprisoned and interrogated at least one suspect on Diego Garcia during 2002 and possibly 2003.

Manfred Nowak, one of five United Nations special rapporteurs on torture, said that credible evidence exists supporting allegations that ships serving as black sites have used Diego Garcia as a base. The human rights group Reprieve alleged that United States-operated ships moored outside the territorial waters of Diego Garcia were used to incarcerate and torture detainees.

Rendition flight refuelling admission

Several groups claim that the military base on Diego Garcia has been used by the United States government for transport of prisoners involved in the controversial extraordinary rendition program, an allegation formally reported to the Council of Europe in June 2007. On 21 February 2008, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband admitted that two United States extraordinary rendition flights refuelled on Diego Garcia in 2002, and was "very sorry" that earlier denials were having to be corrected.

Leaked diplomatic cables

According to leaked diplomatic cables, in a calculated move planned in 2009, the UK proposed that the BIOT become a "marine reserve" with the aim of preventing the former inhabitants from returning to the islands. A summary of the diplomatic cable is as follows:

HMG would like to establish a "marine park" or "reserve" providing comprehensive environmental protection to the reefs and waters of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) official informed Polcouns on 12 May. The official insisted that the establishment of a marine park—the world's largest—would in no way impinge on USG use of the BIOT, including Diego Garcia, for military purposes. He agreed that the UK and United States should carefully negotiate the details of the marine reserve to assure that United States interests were safeguarded and the strategic value of BIOT was upheld. He said that the BIOT's former inhabitants would find it difficult, if not impossible, to pursue their claim for resettlement on the islands if the entire Chagos Archipelago were a marine reserve.

Natural history

No species of plant, bird, amphibian, reptile, mollusc, crustacean or mammal is endemic on Diego Garcia or the surrounding waters, though some species of fish and aquatic invertebrates are endemic. All plants, wildlife, and aquatic species are protected to some degree.

Much of the lagoon and other waters of Diego Garcia are protected wetlands, following an application by the UK in 2004 to obtain Ramsar site