MARK ALMOND reveals how Mauritius has become the center of a US-China power struggle

For most of us, Mauritius is a vacation paradise, a nirvana for ecotourists and honeymooners, far from the depths of world politics and global crises.

But this warm island in the Indian Ocean is now the unlikely epicenter of a chilling power struggle between the United States and China.

At the center of this rivalry is the remote Chagos Archipelago. It is uninhabited except for the island of Diego Garcia, which is home to a major Anglo-American military base.

Owned by the Ministry of Defense but on loan to the US, it is Washington’s most important asset in the vast Indo-Pacific region west of Pearl Harbor.

Looking north, all of America’s main rivals are within range of its B-52 bombers there. From Diego Garcia, Iraq and Afghanistan could be bombed from the base’s two-mile long runway.

The United States could even launch cruise missiles deep into Russia’s vulnerable southern flank or toward China. Its fighter jets can reach vital shipping channels, trade routes and even potential Chinese bases everywhere from Djibouti to Pakistan.

In other words, the security of the West rests on this 27 square kilometer atoll.

But British and US control of Diego Garcia is in jeopardy, at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping has set his sights on the island.

What does this have to do with Mauricio, which is over a thousand miles southwest of Diego Garcia?

The United Kingdom claimed Mauritius from France in the 19th century and remained a British colony until 1968.

But in the 1960s and 1970s, Britain removed the local population from the Chagos Archipelago to make way for the US base at Diego Garcia. The reason for Whitehall was to house the Washington strategic air base and the listening post there so that they could keep an eye on the Soviet Union from the south.

Back then, Mauritius had no say in the fate of its remote dependent islands. But the global order has changed and the world has woken up to the war cries of Mauritius.

After all, Britain condemns Vladimir Putin for violating international law by seizing chunks of Ukraine: we’ve been hoisted on our own rule of law firecracker.

MARK ALMOND: Owned by the Ministry of Defense but on loan to the US, it is Washington’s most important asset in the vast Indo-Pacific region west of Pearl Harbor.

In 2019, the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations, ruled that the British occupation of the islands was illegal. Last year, Liz Truss launched negotiations with Mauritius over the cession of the Chagos Islands.

Now Britain is about to hand over sovereignty. But the United States does not want to give up its crucial strategic asset in Diego Garcia, as the US Navy has, until now, been the dominant force in the Indian Ocean. Mauritius is currently negotiating with Washington to lease the archipelago, at a price.

And in a move that could dramatically inflame diplomatic tensions, China is also courting Mauritius.

Xi has been investing in Mauritius, developing its tourism infrastructure and buying friends and influence there.

Many Mauritians are of Chinese descent, a legacy of a migration scheme devised by French colonizers, and Beijing hopes to play on their patriotic nostalgia.

China has long been expanding its own sphere of influence on crucial trade routes through the South China Sea. Now Beijing is looking to secure its long-haul routes across the Indian Ocean to Middle Eastern oil. By placing your own navy and bases in the region, you bolster your global trade.

China is looking to acquire an anti-US base in Diego Garcia. Of course, Washington would not like that. But China has a precedent in acquiring a rival US base in the same country. Djibouti, a microstate on the east coast of Africa, is already home to three military bases, owned by France, China and the United States.

All of this means that Mauritius could find itself at the center of an aggressive bidding war between Washington and Beijing for the Chagos Islands.

MARK ALMOND: But British and American control of Diego Garcia is in jeopardy, at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping has set his sights on the island.

Who will win? Unnervingly to the West, Beijing has the know-how to turn a deserted island into an airbase and big coffers to buy the rights. As it has demonstrated in the South China Sea, it can mobilize the resources to transform a shoal onto dry land almost overnight.

And cash-strapped Mauritius could be looking for new tenants.

The only people left out of this great power play are the Chagossians, cast adrift 50 years ago.

Meanwhile, their former home islands could now be the battleground of the New Cold War between the United States and China, the Cubas of tomorrow.