LONDON (AP) — Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham is back in the England squad for the first time since the European Championship.
Bellingham missed the September internationals because of injury, but on Thursday he was included in interim coach Lee Carsley's 25-man squad for the Nations League games against Greece and Finland.
Chelsea's Cole Palmer was also called up after withdrawing ahead of the games against Ireland and Finland because of injury, while Manchester United defender Harry Maguire was left out.
Carsley has taken charge of England while the Football Association continues its search for a replacement for Gareth Southgate, who stepped down after the Euros.
Carsley, who stepped up from coaching England Under-21s, won his first two games in the role and could get the job on a permanent basis if he continues to impress.
His squad also includes Tottenham striker Dominic Solanke, who has only one appearance for his country, in 2017.
Manchester City's Kyle Walker has also been recalled after missing the games in September, along with teammate Phil Foden and Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins who both missed out through injury.
Maguire was a key figure under Southgate, but missed the Euros because of injury and was also ruled out of Carsley's first two games. He is fit again, but has not been a regular for United this season.
England plays Greece at Wembley on Oct. 10 and Finland in Helsinki on Oct. 13.
England
Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Nick Pope (Newcastle United)
Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Levi Colwill (Chelsea), Marc Guéhi (Crystal Palace), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Rico Lewis (Manchester City), John Stones (Manchester City), Kyle Walker (Manchester City)
Midfielders: Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Conor Gallagher (Atletico Madrid), Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest), Angel Gomes (Lille), Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Declan Rice (Arsenal)
Forwards: Anthony Gordon (Newcastle United), Jack Grealish (Manchester City), Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Noni Madueke (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Dominic Solanke (Tottenham Hotspur), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)
James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham runs with the ball during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Real Madrid at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, France, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
LONDON (AP) — The British government agreed Thursday to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands, an archipelago of more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius, in a deal to secure the future of a strategically important U.K.-U.S. military base.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the agreement will secure the future of the base at Diego Garcia, the largest in the chain of remote islands off the tip of India that has been under British control for over 50 years. The base, which is home to around 2,500 personnel, mainly Americans, has been involved in military operations including the 2003 war in Iraq and the long-running war in Afghanistan.
Britain's Labour government said without the deal the secure operation of the military base would be under threat, with contested sovereignty and legal challenges, including through various international courts and tribunals.
“It will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security, shut down any possibility of the Indian Ocean being used as a dangerous illegal migration route to the U.K., as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner,” Lammy said.
The agreement also paves the way for the potential return of the few people still alive who were forcibly displaced from their homes on the islands decades ago.
As part of the deal, the U.K. will retain sovereignty of Diego Garcia for an initial period of 99 years, and will pay Mauritius an undisclosed rent. It will also create a “resettlement” fund for displaced Chagossians aimed at letting them move back to the islands other than Diego Garcia.
The Chagos Islands, which conjure up images of paradise with their lush vegetation and long stretches of white sandy beaches, have been at the heart of what Britain has called the British Indian Ocean Territory since 1965 when they were siphoned away from Mauritius, a former U.K. colony that gained independence three years later. Mauritius, which lies east of Madagascar in southern Africa, is around 2,100 kilometers (1,250 miles) southwest of the Chagos Islands.
Following a lease agreement with Britain, the U.S. built the naval base at Diego Garcia for defense purposes in the 1970s. The U.S. has described the base as “an all but indispensable platform” for security operations in the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa.
Around 1,500 inhabitants from the Chagos Islands were displaced to make way for the U.S. base, in what Human Rights Watch said last year amounted to “crimes against humanity committed by a colonial power against an indigenous people.”
Chagossian Voices, a U.K.-based group representing the Chagossian diaspora around the world, voiced disappointment that the negotiations excluded those displaced.
“Chagossians have learned this outcome from the media and remain powerless and voiceless in determining our own future and the future of our homeland.” it said in a statement on social media. “The views of Chagossians, the indigenous inhabitants of the islands, have been consistently and deliberately ignored and we demand full inclusion in the drafting of the treaty.”
The agreement will have to be signed off in a treaty and is dependent on legal processes being finalized. Both sides have committed to complete this as quickly as possible.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he spoke to his Mauritius counterpart, Pravind Jugnauth, on Thursday morning, welcoming the agreement after two years of negotiations that began under the previous Conservative government.
“56 years after our independence, the decolonization is finally complete,” Jugnauth said in a televised address to the nation later Thursday.
The Mauritius government said that the treaty will aim to resolve all outstanding issues related to the islands, including “its former inhabitants,” as well as addressing “the wrongs of the past.”
It laid out the hope that those displaced who are still alive and their descendants, who are mainly living in the U.K., Mauritius and the Seychelles, will have a right to return, as it is now “free” to implement a resettlement program on the islands except Diego Garcia.
It added that the U.K. will financially support the Chagossians, who have fought a long-running legal battle about their displacement, most recently in 2016 when they lost out in a Supreme Court ruling in the U.K. At the time, the previous Conservative government refused their right to return but voiced its “deep regret” for the way the Chagossian community had been mistreated in the 1960s and 1970s.
Over the years, the Chagossians and Mauritius have garnered increasing international support, notably among African nations and within the United Nations. In 2019, in an advisory option that was non-binding, the International Court of Justice ruled that the U.K. had unlawfully carved up Mauritius when it agreed to end colonial rule in the late 1960s.
In a statement, the White House said President Joe Biden applauded the “historic agreement” on the status of the Chagos Islands.
“The agreement secures the effective operation of the joint facility on Diego Garcia into the next century,” the statement said.
In the U.K., Conservative lawmakers standing to be leader of Britain's opposition party expressed dismay at the decision to hand over sovereignty of all but one of the islands. They were criticized for the comments, given that the previous Conservative government started the negotiations.
One of the candidates, Tom Tugenhat, said he has consistently opposed any plan to hand over sovereignty of the islands and warned that the move could see Mauritius potentially leasing one of the islands to China.
“This is a shameful retreat undermining our security and leaving our allies exposed," he said.
Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa, contributed to this report.
This photo provided by the U.S. Navy on Feb. 11, 2023 shows U.S. Navy Sailors aboard the USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60) during a routine port visit at Diego Garcia. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Elliot Schaudt/U.S. Navy via AP)
FILE - Women take part in a protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London, after a court ruling decided Chagos Islanders were not allowed to return to their homeland, Oct. 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, file)
This image realeased by the U.S. Navy shows an aerial view of Diego Garcia. (U.S. Navy via AP)
FILE - Protesters hold banners outside the World Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 3, 2018, where judges listen to arguments in a case on whether Britain illegally maintains sovereignty over the Chagos Islands. (AP Photo/Mike Corder, File)
