Pres Muizzu decides to retract predecessor Solih’s letter to Mauritius

President Dr Mohamed Muizzu announced on Thursday that he has decided to retract the letter sent in 2022 by his predecessor, former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, to the then-Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, acknowledging Mauritius’ sovereign authority over the Chagos archipelago following the country’s independence from British colonial rule.

He made the announcement while delivering his annual address to the Parliament.

Addressing the Parliament, President Muizzu reiterated his assertion that the Maldives is geographically closer, more historically connected, and legally better placed than Mauritius to assert sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, known in the Maldives as Foalhavahi.

He said that Maldivian fishermen have been fishing in Chagos for centuries.

Solih’s letter was sent on August 22, 2022, ahead of a vote on United Nations General Assembly resolution entitled ‘Advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of the separation of Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965.’

In the letter, Solih confirmed that Maldives would vote ‘yes’ on the resolution, in support of decolonization and the right to self-determination.

Following controversy over the letter, Solih had repeatedly insisted that the letter expressed Maldives’ recognition of Mauritius’ sovereign authority over Chagos archipelago, and that it bore no relation to the legal position taken by Maldives at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in the territorial dispute with Mauritius.

In his address, President Muizzu accused Solih’s administration of deliberately surrendering part of the Maldives’ maritime territory, and said that the Maldives filed an objection with the British government on January 18 against the handover of Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

He also announced the decision to establish a presidential commission to conduct an inquiry into the previous administration’s actions.

President Muizzu noted that he has directed Attorney General Ahmed Usham to engage in efforts to recover the maritime territory, and that the committee that looked into the case shared its report with him on December 22.

He said that the cabinet has begun implementing measures in response to the report.

UK, which had severed the Chagos Islands from Mauritius before independence, claiming it to be a part of British-Indian Ocean Territory in the Indian Ocean, had forcibly deported over thousands of inhabitants of Diego Garcia, the largest of the 60 small islands in the archipelago, so that they could lease the island to the United States for a military base.

Maldives became involved in the dispute as the country's exclusive economic zone overlaps with that of Chagos.

In April 2023, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) concluded that the 95,563 square kilometer area between Mauritius and Maldives would be divided between the two using the equidistance formula.

The ruling granted the Maldives 47,232 square kilometers, while awarding 45,331 square kilometers to Mauritius.

However, President Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) has long asserted that the Maldives is entitled to the entire 95,563 square kilometers.

For the longest time, UK refused to comply with decisions by international bodies urging the handover of Chagos Islands to Mauritius – deeming the British occupation of the islands illegal. This included the 2019 decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ highest court.

In a turn of events, UK agreed to Mauritius regarding handover of Chagos in November 2022, and in 2025, the UK signed a multibillion-dollar deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands. The deal allowed Britain to retain control of the strategically important US-UK air base on Diego Garcia under a 99-year lease.