Today, during a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Donald Trump reportedly referred to the Chagos Islands as the “stupid island that the UK gave away.”

The Chagos Archipelago is not just a geopolitical footnote. It is at the center of a decades-long dispute involving sovereignty, decolonization, international law, and the forced displacement of the Chagossian people.

The UK separated the Chagos Islands from Mauritius in 1965, prior to Mauritian independence. Since then, the sovereignty of the territory has been contested, including at the UN and the International Court of Justice.