"Liberation of Peoples": Russia has decided to "decolonize" the islands in the Indian Sea (video)
In particular, regarding the island of Mayotta and Chos Island, which is under the control of France and Great Britain, Moscow is solidarity with the requirements to "bring the decolonization process to completion. " This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov during a speech before the State Duma on February 15.
The head of Russian diplomacy claims that the victory in the Second World War gave impetus to the "liberation of colonial countries and peoples", and Russia allegedly played a crucial role in this, providing free support. "Today, we are joint and several with the requirements to bring the process of decolonization to a fair completion," Lavrov said. It is about two Maotta and Chagos Islands.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France still retains its sovereignty and control over the island of Mayotta, annexed in the state of the Comoral Islands. And the United Kingdom, for its part, controls the "rejected" archipelago of Chegoss, which Mauritius claims.
"The same applies to the rejected London in the Mauritius Chos Island, from where about half a century ago, the British, contrary to the UN decision, were essentially expelled by the local population to create their military base, where it now continues to function safely," Lavrov said. At the same time, the Minister has promised that the Foreign Ministry would support the initiative to hold an International Forum of "supporters of combating modern practices of neo -colonialism.
" The island of Mayotta, which was part of the Komorial Islands, officially became a French colony in June 1843. Three years later, slavery was abolished there. In the period from 1912 and 1946, the three archipelago islands were annexed to Madagascar - this is how the colony called Madagascar and the dependent territories appeared.
In 1946, the Archipelago of the Komoric Islands received the status of overseas territory, after which they founded the territorial Assembly of the Comoros, which included representatives of all four islands. However, in 1974, a referendum took place in the archipelago, which resulted in the population of the three islands, and more than 63% of Maiotta residents voted to stay in France. Chos was handed over to France by the United Kingdom and included in the Mauritius colony in 1814.
Until the 1960s, about 2000 people lived on the island. From 1966 to 1973, the UK authorities moved them to Mauritius and Seychelles with compensation, and created a military base on the island. Although Mauritius gained independence in 1968, the Law on the British Territory in the Indian Ocean was adopted in Britain, under which Chegoss was rejected from Mauritius and remained under British control. In 2022, Mauritius officially challenged the ownership of the UK to the island of Chagos.