Hard defeat of the United Kingdom at the UN in a conflict similar to that of the Falkland Islands

The United Nations General Assembly has asked a large majority of the United Kingdom that the Chagos Archipelago be ceded to Mauritius, which represents a serious setback for London. in a conflict that successive Argentine governments have compared to that of the Falkland Islands.

The archipelago of the Indian Ocean is at the center of a long conflict over the British government's decision to separate it from Mauritius in 1965, to create a joint military base with the United States on Diego Garcia , the largest of its 50 islands.

The Chagossians expelled from the island (who for 40 years have campaigned for the return) denounced the "double speech" of London, the one who, on the one hand, defends the right to self-determination of the Malvinas kelpers but denies them this right for the other.

A total of 116 countries, including Argentina, voted in favor of the non-binding resolution presented by African countries and which urges the United Kingdom to "withdraw its colonial administration" from the Chagos Islands within six months.

Only six out of the 193 nations in the badembly (the United Kingdom and the United States, logically) voted against the measure sponsored by our country, while 56 others abstained, including Canada, France and the United States. l & # 39; Germany. In addition, fifteen did not vote.

"We are very positive that the international community has supported the resolution and the principles of international legality", he said Telam the Argentinean ambbadador to the UN, Martín García Moritán. "It's very important for decolonization processes," he added.

The vote comes three months after the International Court of Justice in The Hague concluded that the United Kingdom had illegally separated the islands and sent them back to Mauritius, a former British colony became independent in 1968.

After the United Kingdom rejected the "advisory opinion" of the ICJ (the highest court of the United Nations), Mauritius requested the intervention of the General Assembly.

The resolution says that the UN and its agencies must recognize the sovereignty of Mauritius over the Chagos and call on all governments to "not recognize, support or badist the illegal colonial administration".

Although the resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly they are not obligatory, they have all the moral weight the most democratic and the most abundant United Nations organs.

The dispute over the Chagos was compared to that of the Falklands, another territory subject to an international complaint against the United Kingdom. In February, Chancellor Jorge Faurie celebrated the decision on Chagos and declared that it had "enormous validity" for the claim of Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas.

"This is the case, in the case of the archipelago of Chagos as in that of the Malvinas, a territorial dismemberment situation where the population on the islands was transferred against their willin this case to the Argentine mainland in 1833, "added the minister at the time.

Addressing the badembly before the vote, Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth said that the UN should send "a clear signal that colonialism can no longer be tolerated."

For its part, British Ambbadador Karen Pierce said the Diego Garcia military base "plays a vital role" in protecting the region's allies, including Mauricio. The United States used stationary aircraft to launch attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2016, the United Kingdom extended the lease agreement with the United States for the use of Diego García until 2036, but this resolution could change everything.