World Court weighs Britain’s claim to Chagos Islands

Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago and site of a major United States military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean leased from Britain in 1966. File Photo

THE HAGUE—Mauritius tried to persuade judges at the World Court on Sept. 3 to find that it was illegally stripped by Britain of another Indian Ocean archipelago, the Chagos Islands, now home to a major U.S. air base.

The case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague is a test of whether colonial-era deals struck by great powers and small states that later gained independence are legitimate, given the power imbalance.