The Ministry of Defence has addressed concerns over the strategic risks posed by increasing Chinese influence in the region to the UK’s military base in Brunei, following a written question from Mark Francois (Conservative – Rayleigh and Wickford).
Luke Pollard, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, responded that “His Majesty, the Sultan of Brunei, and the Prime Minister recently signed the five-yearly renewal of the Garrison Agreement in December 2024, which signals His Majesty the Sultan’s wish to maintain the British presence in Brunei.”
Pollard added that the Government is taking a measured approach towards China. He stated, “This Government will take a consistent, long term and strategic approach to China. We will cooperate where we can. We will compete with and challenge China where we need to, to protect our national security and values.”
He further spoke of the UK’s commitment to the region, noting, “The UK remains committed to supporting a free and open Indo-Pacific and we continue to work with regional partners to strengthen international legal frameworks and to enhance maritime security, including through capacity building and joint exercises.”
The response comes as part of ongoing discussions within the Ministry of Defence on how best to safeguard UK interests at its overseas bases amid shifting geopolitical dynamics.
Increasing the size of our military in Brunei would help
Slightly off/on topic. So the the UK is worried about the influence of Chinese encroachment, they are selling the Chagos islands to Mauritius to is heavily allied with China. Can someone answer if I’m right or wrong?
We are giving chagos back to the rightful owners, which were forceably dislodged. Plus it’s not a uk base it’s a US one, just happens to be uk owned.
Topics have to be considered in full not just on isolated topics. The days of the empire are over and we have to move on.
I don’t think we are giving Chagos back to the people who were forcibly dislodged ie the Chagossians. HMG wants to give the islands to Mauritius together with a huge sum of money. The UK apparently never consulted the Chagossians, despite the fact that many live in southern England and could easily get to a meeting in London. It is said that most want to be a self-governing island nation under British protection and want nothing to do with Mauritius. Whatever happened to our belief in self-determination?
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If anything, the displaced Chagosians are the rightful owners. They’re mostly in Sussex and have not been consulted on the matter. Mauritius is not the ‘rightful owner’ by any stretch of logic.
The displaced Chagosians are not the rightful owners either….
None of them, or any of their ancestors, have ever owned 1 square centimetre of the Chagos Archipelago…they are all descendents of workers on plantations there who were shipped in. They lived their entire lives on company owned land….
Nope Chagos was administered from Mauritius! They have never owned the islands and the islanders descendants have NOT been consulted on their future and all indications are if they were they would like to remain a BIOT.
Sorry Steve, your wrong, the Islands are being given to Mauritius, which as an independent country as of 1965 never owned the Chagos. The days of Empire certainly are over, at least you got that correct.
Unfortunately the rightful owners of Chagos islands largely live in Surrey and their wishes have been completely ignored.
Fortunately the deal with Mauritius is now dead for a generation, they got too greedy and overplayed a very weak hand.
The rightful owner of the Chagos Islands is the British Government…the ‘Chagosians’ have never owned 1 sq centimetre of the land…
“As for the population of the islands, after emancipation some slaves became contract employees; the population changing over time by import of contract labour from Mauritius and, in the 1950s, from Seychelles, so that by the late 1960s, those living on the islands were contract employees of the copra plantations. Neither they, nor those permitted by the plantation owners to remain, owned land or houses. They had licences to reside there at the discretion of the owners and moved from island to island as work required.”
“In 1967 the BIOT Administration acquired the land and the commercial interests of the company operating the copra plantations on the island. As the plantations were in economic decline, their future could not be guaranteed. In 1971, the plantation on Diego Garcia was closed when the island was needed for defence purposes. Closures followed later in the other islands of the Chagos Archipelago. The people affected by these closures were the Mauritian and Seychellois contract workers and their families, who were then given the choice of returning to Mauritius or Seychelles. The majority chose Mauritius where they had close ties and were moved between 1968 and 1973.”
You’re talking nonsense there Steve. Mauritius is most definitely not the rightful owner. The Chagosians are.
You have been misinformed.
We, I repeat we, have been in the Chagos Islands since 1814. Prior to that it was the French. Chagos Islanders were paid dispalacement fees to move out and/or given the right to relocate to the UK. Hardly forced out.
My thought exactly.
The Chagos Islands situation is turning out to be a Can of Worms, not many understand the reasoning of why it is happening.
I’m going to be slightly unusual as a UKDJ reader and pose a “Devils Advocate” question !
Money is tight, Army is under strength but we have 2 Jungle Training facilities, which is an environment we haven’t fought in for a very long time. So as Brunei is located in a very strategic part of the world, we do a lot of trade in SE Asia and the Sultan is an Anglophile and contributes to the costs is it not time to ditch BATSUB in Belize ? I actually don’t see what business is it of ours about what happens in Central America between Belize and Guatemala.
That way we can “mitigate” against Chinese influence by concentrating in one location.
It’s not just the Army by doing so but supporting deployments sucks scarce resource from the RAF and the overall budget.
You may all now load up your catapults and Trebuchets as yes I am asking why we don’t make a “cut’ in Tasking and choice of Beaches 🧐
I agree, Belize makes no sense, Brunei pays for the presence and it’s also heavily used by Singapore. We should have nothing to do with Central America.
The UK has a mutual defence pact with Belize.
TOTALLY OT….ENGLAND!!!!!!
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