Britain’s Starmer Seems Bent on Ending the Special Relationship With America

Britain’s prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, seems bent on destroying Winston Churchill’s “special relationship.” Citing international law and acting out of colonial guilt, the Labourite wants to block America from using the strategically-located Diego Garcia base for action against the Islamic Republic. The premier’s faux-legal sophistry and his dealmaking with a Beijing-allied African country thinly disguise an aversion to cooperating with America. Diego Garcia is the largest island in the Indian Ocean’s Chagos archipelago. Last year Sir Keir struck a deal to hand the islands to Mauritius, and lease it back for 99 years at the cost of $162 million a year. The deal is now in trouble. On Friday a British Justice, James Lewis, blocked an eviction order of four Chagosians who landed there to protest the sovereignty handover to Mauritius, an island nation with a shaky claim to the Chagos. “To hand over the Chagos to a country that is friendly with China would be an extremely stupid thing to do,” a British army veteran, Adam Holloway, who helped the protesters, said. Two centuries ago Colonial Britons administered their Indian Ocean assets, Mauritius and Chagos, together. After independence in 1968, Mauritius claimed sovereignty over the Chagos. Britain resisted until Mr. Starmer moved to appease advocates of the “Global South.” In 1965 the British Indian Ocean Territory took over Diego Garcia. It signed a treaty with America a year later, allowing the use of the island for the defense needs of both countries. The deal further stipulated that Britain can’t unilaterally cede the island. Curiously, the Department of State failed to cite that pact when it recently endorsed London’s Mauritius deal. When Mr. Starmer, though, added insult to injury Washington changed the tune. “Do not give away Diego Garcia,” President Trump wrote in all caps this week on Truth Social. That was after Mr. Starmer informed the president that he would deny the use of the American base there for military action in Iran. It would “breach international law,” the premier argued. If you’re keeping score at home, note: 10 Downing Street considers a violation of a treaty with America kosher; challenging militarily a murderous, dangerous regime isn’t.International law? The 2003 Iraq war violated it, according to Russia, Arab countries, and the United Nations. British diplomats made a strong counter argument. As Secretary Marco Rubio told Europeans at Munich this week, “we cannot continue to allow those who blatantly and openly threaten our citizens and endanger our global stability to shield themselves behind abstractions of international law which they themselves routinely violate.” In 2003 London’s relations with Washington were indeed special. Prime Minister Tony Blair bonded with Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. Earlier, the alliance of President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher was key to the West’s victory over Soviet tyranny. Oh, and Thatcher fought to keep the Falklands British. The colonialism-averse Sir Keir is yet to call them “Las Malvinas.” Doesn’t President Javier Milei live in the “Global South”? The Diego Garcia base played a crucial role in the American-British Iraq war. Mr. Trump might drop diplomatic efforts soon and our array of military assets in the Gulf will act. Nearby Diego Garcia could be utilized by American bombers and fighter jets. The mullahs place Britain just below America and Israel on their list of top enemies. Sir Keir’s refusal to join America in addressing a global menace is his bad choice. Undermining us is much worse.

Britain’s Starmer Seems Bent on Ending the Special Relationship With America

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