Donald Trump’s intervention in the UK’s Chagos deal has been welcomed by Sir Liam Fox, as he suggested the deal could breach a key UK-US treaty.Speaking to GB News, the ex-Defence Secretary also claimed the UK pushing ahead with the deal could be due to its connection with China and the visit there by Sir Keir Starmer.Labour ministers are increasingly concerned that President Donald Trump could cancel the deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.The concerns regard a treaty signed with America in 1966, which confirms UK sovereignty of the islands and could be breached if the deal goes ahead.
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Asked by host Nana Akua whether he believes the deal is a good idea, Sir Liam said: “I think it’s a terrible mistake. And I think when you look at the evidence that the condemns the current Government, we had the decision on the Chinese embassy, which was just made days before the Prime Minister’s visit to China.”Which many of us suspect was done to improve the optics of the visit rather than on grounds of national security, and China would also benefit from giving away the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, who are a close ally of China.”Highlighting the UK-US treaty and his hope that Mr Trump will take “action” against the deal, he added: “And now we are really dependent on what I hope will be the action of the American Government to say you have a treaty with us. “And that treaty guaranteed that the Chagos Islands would remain British sovereign territory.”Taking aim at the UK Attorney General Lord Hermer over the deal and the possible treaty breach, Sir Liam said: “There are questions for the Attorney General. Did he know that that treaty existed before they brought forward the other treaty? “If he didn’t know that, that’s not exactly an example of competence. And if he did know, did he consult the United States before the other treaty came forward? And if not, why not?””And I think there have not been sufficient questions aimed at the Attorney General on this issue.”Host Tom Harwood responded: “Ironic, isn’t it, that treaty sits in a primary place in international law. LATEST DEVELOPMENTSDonald Trump threatens direct attack on Iran as he issues ultimatum with ‘massive Armada on its way’Labour ministers worried Donald Trump could pull plug on ‘stupid’ Chagos dealChagos Islands base BANNED from storing nuclear weapons as military freedom ‘completely compromised'”The advisory decision of the United Nations sits on a much lower level of international law, and yet you’d think the Attorney General who sings the praises of international law so often would know that?”Asked about Sir Keir’s trip to China amid reports that the Government took “burner phones and laptops” with them, Sir Liam revealed that those security measures are “normal behaviour”.He told GB News: “Yes, there is that level of concern and has been for some time. Basically, we were not allowed to take any electronic equipment with us at all that could be used in any way for penetration by the Chinese security forces. So this would be a normal piece of behaviour. “And of course, it does raise the bigger question about our relationship with China, which has always been in recent times, a balance between seeing China as an economic opportunity and seeing it as a security threat.”Sir Liam continued: “But since we had that last prime ministerial visit in 2018, we’ve seen China disregard the Hong Kong treaty, we’ve seen the national security law being brought in, then augmented by something called Article 23. “We’ve seen the threatening of Taiwan, we saw the sacking of the most senior general – last week we’ve heard MI5 talk about the constant threat to the United Kingdom.”So it seems on that side of the ledger that the security relationship between Britain and China has deteriorated a lot since then.”In a statement, a Downing Street spokesman has said: “As the public would rightly expect, we’ve negotiated robust security provisions to protect the UK and the base for decades to come.”Our Standards:
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