Britain's government insisted Thursday that it must hand back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius to secure continued access to satellite communications at a key US-UK military base.The Labour administration is facing domestic political criticism for announcing in October that it would return the isles to Britain's former colony and pay to lease the facility on Diego Garcia,

If Britain wants to remain a reliable partner in our security alliance, it must be willing to defend its sovereignty. As much as President Trump uses unpredictability as a diplomatic tool, I can predict one thing for sure: there is no way he will allow Britain to give up its sovereignty over the Chagos Islands.

A British minister denied on Wednesday media reports that the government could end up paying billions of pounds more to Mauritius under a renegotiated deal to retain a U.S.-British military base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

The UK government said it wouldn’t provide any details on a proposed multibillion-pound deal to continue operating a military base in the Chagos archipelago once it cedes control of the islands until it’s finalized,