Cleo Pascal

The president of the country is coming in.

Of course, the Chinese delegation, they've chartered flights.

They've redirected the national boat to go to it.

This is really the Chinese saying we're here in Yap.

And so far, there isn't going to be a single representative from the United States of America attendings.

Yeah, so not just leverage.

The US and the UK have an existing agreement from 1966 that's due to run until 2036, which says that the Chagos Archipelago, including the critical Diego Garcia base, has to remain British.

And the fine folks at the British Foreign Office apparently didn't tell or properly brief

when the U.S.

originally came out for the deal.

And so not only does it have leverage, it can kill the deal straight up.

And there are reports from the Brits and Chagossians who have been meeting with State Department that State Department intends to clarify the position and say they're against the deal.

But the cabinet of the government of Mauritius just released its notes from its cabinet meeting January 30 where it says that there's been a proposal from

the US for a high level delegation to go to Mauritius to discuss some sort of security partnership and Western Indian Ocean Agreement, which implies that there's, if that's accurate, that there's still people within the State Department or the NSS that think Mauritius should be somehow involved in something.

I see no reason to see why.

They really shouldn't belong anywhere near the Chacos Archipelago anyway.

But perhaps this is some sort of conciliatory agreement to say, OK, forget Chagos, but we'll work with you in the Western Pacific.

I'm not quite sure how they're going to do it.

This is a country that's very close to China, drifting close to China.

But maybe somebody is trying to square the circle.