"A Long Way Away": Boris Johnson's Geography-Driven Attack on the Chagos Handover to Mauritius
- Ibrahim Rasheed
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
The Chagos Archipelago Handover: Geography, Boris Johnson's "A Long Way Away" Critique, and the Broader DebateIn October 2024,
The United Kingdom government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a historic agreement with Mauritius to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago administered as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) to Mauritius.
The deal, formalized in stages through 2025 with the treaty signed on May 22, 2025, resolved a protracted sovereignty dispute by recognizing Mauritius' claim while granting the UK a long-term lease (initially described as 99 years) for the strategically vital joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia.
This arrangement followed sustained international legal and diplomatic pressure, notably the 2019 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which declared the UK's 1965 detachment of the Chagos from Mauritius unlawful under decolonization principles, as it violated the right to self-determination and territorial integrity of a non-self-governing territory.
The announcement provoked immediate and sharp criticism, most prominently from former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In interviews and opinion pieces shortly after the October 3, 2024, revelation published in outlets such as The Telegraph and aired on GB News Johnson condemned the handover as "total nonsense" and driven by "sheer political correctness." He explicitly urged the public to "get out your maps, get out your atlases" to scrutinize the geography, repeatedly emphasizing that the Chagos Islands are "a long way away" from Mauritius.
Johnson argued that this significant distance invalidated or weakened Mauritius' historical and legitimate claim, portraying the agreement as an ideologically motivated surrender of British sovereignty that endangered national security and strategic interests in the Indian Ocean. Johnson's "a long way away" phrase encapsulated a core element of conservative opposition: the notion that physical remoteness from Mauritius undermined the basis for handover. Geographically, this point holds factual weight.
The Chagos Archipelago lies approximately 1,250 miles (about 2,000–2,155 km) northeast of Mauritius' main island, depending on the precise measurement (e.g., air distance from Diego Garcia to Port Louis is often cited around 2,000–2,155 km). This places the islands in a remote position in the central Indian Ocean, far from Mauritius' volcanic island group. In contrast, the Chagos are much closer to other landmasses: roughly 310 miles (500 km) south of the Maldives' southern atolls (such as Addu Atoll), and nearer to parts of the Seychelles or even distant coasts of India and East Africa in some contexts. Critics of the deal, including Johnson, highlighted this disparity to suggest that Mauritius' claim rested more on colonial administrative history than on natural geographical or cultural proximity. This geographical reality is further underscored by the Chagos Archipelago's position at the southern end of the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge (also known as the Lakshadweep-Maldives-Chagos Ridge or CLR), a major submarine mountain range and aseismic ridge in the western Indian Ocean. This geological feature strongly supports the argument that the Chagos are much closer to the Maldives than to Mauritius, forming a natural continuation of the same island chain.
The ridge is an approximately 2,200–2,550 km long underwater plateau and volcanic trace (linked to the Réunion hotspot), stretching in an arcuate north-south path across the equator. It is divided into three main segments:
Northern block: Lakshadweep (Laccadive) Islands (India).
Southern block: Chagos Archipelago.
Southern block: Chagos Archipelago.
The ridge supports a chain of coral atolls and submerged banks formed on volcanic foundations, creating a continuous geological and ecological corridor. The Maldives rest on the central portion, while the Chagos Archipelago marks the southernmost extension of this ridge, lying at its terminal end around latitudes 5°S to 10°S. This shared underwater structure explains similarities in atoll-based ecosystems, including tropical moist forests (classified under the Maldives–Lakshadweep–Chagos Archipelago ecoregion), coral reefs, and marine biodiversity.
The Chagos effectively act as the "southern continuation" of the Maldivian atoll chain, reinforcing arguments of natural regional alignment beyond arbitrary colonial boundaries. In this context, the Maldives has asserted a strong historical, cultural, and legal claim over the Chagos Islands (referred to in Dhivehi as Foalhavahi), challenging the United Kingdom's 2025 transfer of sovereignty to Mauritius. President Mohamed Muizz has repeatedly stated that the Maldives holds the "strongest claim" to the archipelago, citing historical connections, geographical proximity, and pre-colonial ties. In statements and interviews throughout 2025 and into 2026, Muizzu emphasized that the Chagos lie south of Maldivian waters and are linked through ancient seafaring, trade networks, and cultural affinities (including shared Dhivehi linguistic roots and atoll societies). He formally raised concerns with the UK, arguing that Maldives' claim surpasses Mauritius' on these grounds. Former President Mohamed Nasheed has echoed this, pointing to opportunities (e.g., UK parliamentary delays in early 2026) for the Maldives to reassert its position, including references to Dhivehi inscriptions and historical documents. Advocacy groups like "Maldivians For Chagos" have amplified these arguments, framing the Chagos as authentically connected to the Maldives and urging recognition of Maldivian sovereignty as a lawful decolonization pathway. While Mauritius' claim prevailed in the UK agreement rooted in 19th–20th century British colonial administration the Maldives' assertions highlight overlapping maritime entitlements and the broader regional implications of the deal.
The ICJ's 2019 opinion focused on decolonization legality rather than pure distance or geology, but the ridge's structure and proximity continue to fuel Maldivian discourse, especially amid ongoing boundary discussions at bodies like the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).In conclusion, Boris Johnson's "a long way away" critique captured an intuitive geographical objection to the Chagos handover, amplifying conservative arguments that distance erodes Mauritius' claim and exposes strategic vulnerabilities. While factually accurate in highlighting remoteness from Mauritius (and relative proximity to the Maldives), the argument overlooks the legal-historical foundation upheld by the ICJ and UN resolutions. The deal reflects a pragmatic resolution to colonial legacies in an era of shifting global norms, balancing sovereignty transfer with defence imperatives. Johnson's rhetoric, though politically potent among opponents, ultimately underscores how geography can be Utilized as a tool or instrument for a specific purpose. in sovereignty debates yet rarely decides them alone particularly when juxtaposed against the Maldives' persistent and geographically grounded challenge to the outcome.