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A treaty over ceding sovereignty of the Chagos Islands<\/a> to Mauritius has become \u201cimpossible to agree at political level\u201d and the corresponding bill will not complete its passage through parliament, a Foreign Office minister has said.<\/p>\n Stephen Doughty told the Commons that the agreement with Mauritius<\/a> was initially negotiated in close coordination with the US, but Donald Trump\u2019s position \u201cappears to have changed\u201d.<\/p>\n The UK government was forced to shelve its legislation<\/a> to hand the Chagos Islands<\/a> to Mauritius after the US dropped its support for the agreement.<\/p>\n As part of the deal, the UK was to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius<\/a>, and lease the island of Diego Garcia, which is the site of a joint UK-US military base, for 99 years to continue operations.<\/p>\n Doughty said Trump had initially described the treaty as \u201cvery strong and powerful\u201d, adding that the document had been \u201ctested thoroughly at all levels of the United States system under two administrations and found to be robust\u201d.<\/p>\n But with the withdrawal of US support, Doughty said it had become impossible to agree an update to the the 1966 UK-US agreement, known as the \u201cexchange of notes\u201d, over the availability for defence purposes of British Indian Ocean territories.<\/p>\n Doughty told MPs that updating the 1966 agreement was necessary to ratify the treaty, and so \u201cthe Diego Garcia bill can therefore not complete its passage this parliamentary session and cannot be carried over due to its advanced progression through parliament\u201d.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThe government nevertheless remains confident that the Diego Garcia treaty is the best means of protecting the full operation of the military base for future generations, for us and our allies.\u201d<\/p>\n The setback in the UK\u2019s push to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, is a sign of the worsening US-UK relations<\/a> after Trump\u2019s heavy criticism of Keir Starmer over his stance on the Iran war.<\/p>\n Doughtly said: \u201cThe delay to the treaty will be sad news to many Chagossians \u2013 although I accept not all \u2013 who rightly see it as the only viable means to a sustainable programme of resettlement, which Mauritius would be able to implement under its terms.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n