Former President and Current Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed says during his presidency, the Maldives had discussions with Mauritius over dividing the Chagos islands.
He said this in a document he had written about the Archipelago near South of Addu City in the Indian Ocean.
Nasheed said that when the United Kingdom relinquishes its claim on the islands, its sovereignty would be reverted to its inhabitants.
He further said that Maldivians especially those from the Southern Atoll of Fuvuhmulah went to Chagos for fishing purposes and that those relocated to Mauritius were not from Chagos.
Nasheed, who is a recipient of the highest honor given in Mauritius, said that during his presidency all the discussions on the Chagos islands with Mauritius always centered on dividing the islands.
The former President said that in ancient times, Chagos was a vibrant island and that in the navigational charts drawn after the 1,500s, Chagos islands were drawn as part of the Maldives just south of Addu.
He added that even Maldivian navigators consider the Chagos islands as part of the Maldives.
The Government has said that the debate about the Chagos islands belonging to Mauritius is years old and that after these debates in a 2019 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice, the U.N.'s highest court, ruled that the continuing British occupation of the islands was illegal and the Chagos Islands are rightfully part of Mauritius.
It further said that upon this advisory, Mauritius, along with some African nations and nations from the non-aligned movement joined to gather to submit a resolution to the UN General Assembly calling for the transfer of Chagos to Mauritius and that the resolution was submitted on 22nd May of that year.
But Mauritius has opposed the Maldives' application to the Commission on the Limits of the International Shelf back in 2010 asking to increase its continental shelf by 200 nautical miles and that the Maldives had initially voted against its fellow island nation at the UN General Assembly.
The Foreign Ministry further said that the Maldives changed its stance on the matter because of its policy on Colonization and decided to vote with Mauritius.
