Diego Garcia Flashpoint Signals New Security Risks for India in Its Maritime Backyard

✍️ Written by Saket Suman

Iran on Saturday allegedly launched missiles toward Diego Garcia, a remote island in the Indian Ocean that hosts a major U.K.–U.S. military base, in what Britain described as “reckless attacks,” though the strike was unsuccessful and it remains unclear how the missiles came close to the base located roughly 4,000 kilometers from Iran. Later an unnamed Iranian Official denied that Iran had fired those missiles bt this has opened the pandora's box for India, let's understand how.

File Photo of Diego Garcia, a U.S.-UK base in the Indian Ocean; Via: Europa on X

The incident came just as the United Kingdom has expanded permissions for the United States to use its bases, including Diego Garcia, for “specific and limited defensive operations” targeting Iranian missile capabilities linked to attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, even as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was “putting British lives in danger” by allowing such use.

The episode is about much more than Iran's capacity to strike and brings into focus the strategic significance of Diego Garcia, a heavily militarized facility described by the United States as an “indispensable platform” for operations across the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa, hosting around 2,500 personnel and previously supporting campaigns from Iraq to Afghanistan, including deployments of nuclear-capable B-2 bombers. 

The island sits at the heart of the Chagos Archipelago, a group of over 60 islands in the central Indian Ocean, whose sovereignty was long disputed after Britain expelled up to 2,000 residents in the 1960s–70s to facilitate the base, drawing criticism from the United Nations and the International Court of Justice.

From India’s perspective, the developments intersect directly with its stated position on sovereignty, decolonisation and maritime security in the Indian Ocean. New Delhi had formally welcomed the October 3, 2024 agreement between the United Kingdom and Mauritius, stating that it “completes the decolonisation of Mauritius” and calling it a “welcome development” achieved “in compliance with international law,” while reiterating that India “has consistently supported Mauritius’s claim for sovereignty over Chagos… in line with its principled stand on decolonization and support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations.” 

That position was restated on May 22, 2025, when India described the formal treaty returning Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia, as a “milestone achievement” and “a positive development for the region,” adding that it marked “the culmination of the process of decolonization… in the spirit of international law and rules-based order.”

At the same time, the operational reality is actually more complex. The U.K.–Mauritius agreement allows continued use of Diego Garcia for defence purposes, and U.S. leadership has underscored its importance, with President Donald Trump stating in early 2026 that “Diego Garcia is of great importance to the national security of the US” and indicating that Washington could act to secure its presence if threatened. 

The agreement itself structurally embeds a contradiction that can become a problem for India in moments like this. While it clearly states that “Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago in its entirety, including Diego Garcia,” it simultaneously authorises the United Kingdom to exercise “all rights and authorities… required for the long-term, secure and effective operation of the Base,” including permitting the United States to operate it jointly . 

In practice, this means that even after the so called formal decolonisation, operational control over one of the most critical military nodes in the Indian Ocean remains firmly in U.K.–U.S. hands, with “unrestricted access, basing and overflight” and control over “armed operations and lethal capabilities” built into the treaty architecture . 

Now that London has explicitly permitted Washington to use these bases for strikes linked to Iran, the agreement effectively enables escalation in India’s maritime backyard without New Delhi having any direct lever over decision-making. In a different war, this might throw serious problems for India and create a layered strategic discomfort. 

New Delhi has consistently backed Mauritius on sovereignty and decolonisation, but the same framework it welcomed now allows external powers to conduct military operations in the Indian Ocean under a legally sanctioned structure it does not control. Iran has allegedly demonstrated reach toward Diego Garcia and the base’s operational use against Iran risks turning the wider Indian Ocean into an extended theatre of conflict. 

The result is a paradox. India supports a rules-based, decolonised order in principle but the post-colonial arrangement still preserves a Western military architecture that can draw the region into great-power conflict, potentially undermining the very “maritime security and regional stability” India has repeatedly said it seeks to protect. The latest missile attempt therefore is a signal that the Indian Ocean, long seen as a relatively stable strategic space, is now being drawn directly into the expanding geography of a trial war. 

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(Saket Suman is Editor at IndianRepublic.in, and the author of The Psychology of a Patriot.)