The U.K. has agreed 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.

Britain on Thursday said it would give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, but under what President Joe Biden called a "historic agreement" will keep a strategic Indian Ocean military base with the United States.

After years of negotiations, the UK is giving up its sovereignty over a cluster of strategically important Indian Ocean islands. The move has led to criticism from Britain's Conservative opposition and some local Indigenous groups.