President-elect Donald Trump is reported to be pressuring UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer over the UK’s caving to foreign influence on assets in the Indian Ocean — pressure from Trump that could preserve U.S. hegemony in the Eastern Hemisphere. 

Trump’s weight on Starmer is a sign of the return of the U.S. historical “Peace Through Strength” doctrine, a key element of Trump’s agenda, revived after decades of nation-building endeavors in Iraq and Afghanistan and interventionist policies around the globe. 

In the middle of the UK’s plans to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is a key U.S. military asset: a sprawling air base and deep water sea port on the tiny and remote island of Diego-Garcia. Insofar as Trump has suggested he will work to end global conflicts, the base is a critical link in projecting U.S. power, which Trump has said will not diminish on his watch. 

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Starmer’s Labour government has put itself on the outs with the free world in authoritarian crackdowns and jailing citizens and journalists who protested the killings of three little children by an Al-Qaeda-linked extremist this year. 

In the aftermath, Starmer became the least popular British PM in a century.  

And with the incoming Trump administration, Starmer, too, may have jeopardized the ‘special relationship’ the United States and the UK have enjoyed on the world stage. 

The suicidal Chagos Islands deal, which would hand over the archipelago to Mauritius could also jeopardize western military power in Asia and Africa.

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Lurking in the shadows of the deal is China. Beijing has made moves on the territories thousands of miles from Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, inking a 2021 free trade agreement and continuing to cozy up to the island nation. Mauritius, for its part, voted in the UN in favor of Beijing over human rights concerns as the two have deepened ties. 

China has been active in the region. The Republic of Seychelles, an island group in the Indian Ocean, started to make noises about participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative — through which Beijing has already projected its power on the African continent. 

Diego-Garcia boasts enough room for a 12,000 foot runway and its lagoon is deep enough for most Navy ships. Moreover, the island has a reliable fresh water supply, meaning water, which is difficult to transport and store, is not a factor in pinching supply chains to the outpost. In other words, there’s virtually no limit to the personnel, aircraft, and materiel that can be staged at the base. It’s a critical logistical node in projecting U.S. power and security. 

The deal is supposed to preserve US and UK control of the base with a 99-year lease. But whether that will be upheld is another matter. The incoming Mauritanian PM has evidently called the lease an “act of high treason against the Mauritanian state.” The new government also faces a wire-tapping scandal of its own doing.

 U.S. Republican Senators warned last month the deal is a ‘coup’ for Chinese interests. It is believed UK political maestro and MP Nigel Farage has Trump’s ear on the Chagos deal. 

The deal, which unquestionably profits Beijing, was backed by the Biden-Harris administration and outgoing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. 

Trump’s heat on Starmer may keep the US and the ailing UK from giving away the game in the Indian Ocean, but the deal shows the current Pentagon and Starmer’s Downing Street intent on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. 

Trump’s selection for Secretary of Defense, veteran Pete Hegseth, shows there is soon to be a new sheriff in town, however. And Trump himself liable to re-exert U.S. influence in maintaining its ‘special relationship’ with the UK.