Mauritius is holding out over a deal to gain control of the Chagos Islands from the UK, leaving ministers less than a month to rescue the agreement.
The government in Mauritius, which took office last month, has made clear it is dissatisfied with the terms negotiated by the previous administration. Over the weekend the deputy prime minister accused the British government of “nitpicking about the compensation”.
Senior US and UK officials are now scrambling to salvage the deal and ratify it before Donald Trump, whose allies have been highly critical of the planned handover, takes office on 20 January.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, urged Navin Ramgoolam, the prime minister of Mauritius, to finalise the treaty over the phone on Monday.
Ramgoolam told a meeting of Mauritian MPs after his call with Blinken: “I made him understand that we do not agree with certain things contained in the agreement concluded on 3 October by the former Mauritian prime minister and informed him that we have made a counter-proposal which will be transmitted to him.”
After decades of negotiations, Britain agreed to cede sovereignty over the islands to the government of Mauritius in October, on condition that a UK-US military base could continue operating on the largest island, Diego Garcia.
Since taking office, Ramgoolam has sought to reopen negotiations and is reportedly asking the UK to pay more for its 99-year lease of Diego Garcia.
Paul Bérenger, the Mauritian deputy prime minister, told a meeting in his constituency on Sunday that it came down to money. “There are certain things that we cannot accept if we are true patriots,” Bérenger said.
“They are nitpicking about the compensation to be granted to Mauritius when for 60 years, they have illegally used our Chagos and our Diego Garcia. We will continue to negotiate.”
Jonathan Powell, the UK’s national security adviser, travelled to Port Louis and to Washington DC in recent weeks in an effort to get the deal signed before Trump’s inauguration.
Britain kept control of the Chagos Islands after Mauritius regained independence in the 1960s. In doing so, it evicted thousands of Chagossians who have since mounted a series of legal claims for compensation in British courts.
Diego Garcia has been home to a joint US-UK military base since the 1970s, which has played a key strategic role as a hub for long-range bombers and ships, notably during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
