Mauritian FM rejects report of U.S. intention to buy Chagos Archipelago as “fake news”

PORT LOUIS, June 11– Mauritian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade Dhananjay Ramful said on Wednesday that he had “at no time” heard U.S. President Donald Trump express an intention to purchase the Chagos Archipelago, describing the report of an alleged U.S. plan to acquire the archipelago as “fake news.”

He made the remarks in response to a question from the Mauritian press following a ceremony marking the conclusion of an updated economic partnership agreement between the European Union and Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Comoros, held in Balaclava, in northwest Mauritius.

The Telegraph, a British newspaper, reported last Sunday that the Trump administration was considering a plan to buy the Chagos Archipelago to gain control of Diego Garcia, where a U.S.-British military base is based.