Opinion: Russia and Mauritius developing maritime interests? No surprise

Russia-Mauritius maritime relations began before sovereignty negotiations and the deal
– British Governments went ahead anyway

aerial view of diego garcia naval support activity /Scene Camera Operator: PH2 Frazier.
Copyright: Public Domain.

Russia and Mauritius representatives met last Friday to work on marine research issues reports The Telegraph today. This should come as no surprise. 

Opponents of the UK Government’s Chagos Islands sovereignty deal may seize on this news as a sign the Labour Government’s sovereignty handover shouldn’t go ahead for security reasons.

Yet Russia and Mauritius’ maritime and diplomatic interests have been going on for years. This is well before the previous Conservative government announced in 2022 that it was starting sovereignty negotiations of the Chagos Islands with Mauritius.

For example in 2017 Seetanah Lutchmeenaraido, then Mauritian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, announced after meeting his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that Mauritius and Russia had “found projects suitable for implementation in areas such as information technology, power generation, maritime transport, fishing and infrastructure.”

The current Labour Government seems to have ignored the prospect of the deepening of Mauritian-Russian green collaborations as a reason to derail sovereignty handover agreements too. 

A year ago the Russian News Agency TASS reported that Russia’s Ambassador to Mauritius Konstantin Klimovsky said, “Our countries have good prospects for diversifying economic ties and developing cooperation in the fields of fishing, oceanographic research, seafood processing [and] maritime transport.”

Then in August last year Russia launched “The Great African Expedition” by the Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries. Its aim is to assess marine resources along the coasts of 18 African countries including those in the Indian Ocean. 

Regardless, two months later the Government announced on 3 October that it had agreed to hand over the sovereignty of Britain’s Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. 

A new strengthening of Russian-Mauritian relations on maritime affairs is not the reason the sovereignty deal has been put on hold last week either. The current and previous Governments have known about this growing green diplomatic, research and business relationship between Moscow and Port Louis for years. 

In fact British governments have used environmental concerns to promote their own political agenda in the region too. The Marine Protected Area (MPA) that surrounds the Chagos Islands has long been a subject of political controversy. When Britain first established it, Mauritius presented a case to an Arbitral Tribunal in 2015.

Instead of asserting political power grabs using environmental issues, when will Britain and Mauritius start a more public debate for all citizens to engage in and include the Chagossian people’s representatives around any negotiating table?

Tessa Clarke/19 May 2025

THE CHAGOS FILES is investigating politics, maritime and environmental issues relating to the Chagos Islands sovereignty deal and democratic demands of Chagossian people. 

Tips on confidence to: thechagosfiles@proton.me