Burnham wants to 'recast' Chagos Islands deal after US resistance

The UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, has said he wants to "recast" the deal to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, after resistance from Washington, which suggested the agreement could instead be modelled on the US arrangement with Denmark over Greenland.

Burnham told the Economist he wanted "a new discussion" with the US over the disputed islands, which are home to the Diego Garcia military base. "We are in discussion with our US friends to see how we might recast the arrangement that better meets their concerns," he said.

"We look at the Greenland deal and obviously there was a solution reached there. Now, maybe there is something there we can take from that to see if there's a solution that works in relation to Diego Garcia. But that is something that we're very engaged on. We're working hard on it, but it is challenging."

Deal in limbo after Trump objection

The original deal, struck by the former prime minister Keir Starmer, would have given sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius while keeping control of the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia under a 99-year lease. Mauritius would have received £165m for three years and £120m a year from the fourth year.

The agreement was thrown into uncertainty when Donald Trump made clear he opposed it. Speaking in September after a bilateral meeting with Burnham in New York, the US president said: "I don't support it – I think it's a terrible deal."

The defence secretary, Wes Streeting, has since said the British government had suspended payments to Mauritius while the UK and US worked on a compromise. "This deal as it is currently constituted can't go ahead without American support," he told the BBC. "So we have to get a deal to a place where it commands American support as well as the agreement of the government of Mauritius and our government."

Under the US agreement with Denmark, Greenland remains a Danish territory but the US will be allowed to develop a significant military presence there, while its adversaries will be banned from building their own bases on the island.

Chogm, reparations and future summits

Burnham was speaking on his return from Antigua, where he attended the Commonwealth heads of government (Chogm) summit. Much of the trip was dominated by Caribbean demands for Britain to pay reparations for slavery, but Burnham said his government had helped move the issue on by opening up the possibility of a government apology. "I think we have done something, we've achieved something out there," he said.

He will host the G20 in Manchester next year. Burnham said the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, would be barred because of outstanding sanctions against leading figures in the Russian administration, while the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, would be welcome. He noted Xi had visited Manchester in 2015 and would see "a big difference" on his return.

Over the next few weeks, Burnham will prepare for the EU summit in Brussels, which he says will be a moment for the UK to begin thinking about its longer-term relationship with the bloc and whether it should rejoin.

He will also pull together his "10-year plan", which aides say will set out his long-term vision for how the UK should change over the next decade, including public control over key parts of the economy. Promised for this year, it could now slip to December or January, and Burnham denied reports that it would be brief and lacking in detail. "It will be substantial, and it will also be – well, in my view, it will be compelling because I am weaving the different threads together," he said. "We may go into the new year, to be honest ... December or January. I think we will need to leave that open."

Source: The Guardian.