Diego Garcia: Comments by the President of the United States

Lord Craig of Radley Excerpts

Thursday 22nd January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I know the noble Lord does not always want me to be nice to him on the Floor of the House, but I must say that the Liberal Democrats, much as they have had their issues with this agreement, have always been focused on the rights of the Chagossian communities and have put that case clearly and consistently. I respect the way that they have gone about this. What we have not seen is any attempt to undermine the position regarding the sovereignty of Greenland or to leverage other issues that fundamentally undermine NATO and the security of the Arctic region. Sadly, that is what we are seeing from others. I agree with the noble Lord about the sovereignty of this Parliament and commend him for the consistency with which he has approached this issue.

[Lord Craig of Radley (CB)]

My Lords, we have been clear that the Americans are likely to spend a considerable amount of money in developing resources and so on in Greenland. If they were to do that, what assessment do the Government make of the effect on the amount of money that might be available for Diego Garcia?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We are talking through our allies in NATO with the United States, because we agree with them about how vital Arctic security is, and that does involve Greenland. But the right way to do this is collaboratively, through NATO, and that is the position that we are getting to. The same applies, in many ways, around the way that we will be approaching the base on Diego Garcia, because this is very much a shared endeavour.