Diego Garcia in the context of "Rodrigues"

The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is a British Overseas Territory situated in the Indian Ocean. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands, many very small, amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres (23 square miles). The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 square kilometres (10 square miles), the site of a Joint Military Facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Official administration is remote from London, though the local capital is often regarded as being on Diego Garcia.

Mauritius claimed that the British government separated the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius, creating a new colony, the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). However, this was disputed by the United Kingdom, who said that the Chagos Islands had no historical or cultural ties to Mauritius, and that they were only governed during the colonial period from Mauritius (2191 km or 1361 miles away) as an administrative convenience. Mauritius further claimed that to avoid accountability to the United Nations for its continued colonial rule, the UK falsely claimed that the Chagos had no permanent population.

The Chagos Archipelago (/ˈtʃɑːɡəs, -ɡoʊs/, also UK: /ˈtʃeɪɡɒs/) or Chagos Islands (formerly Bassas de Chagas, and later the Oil Islands) is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of the Maldives archipelago. This chain of islands is the southernmost archipelago of the Chagos–Laccadive Ridge, a long submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean. In its north are the Salomon Islands, Nelsons Island and Peros Banhos; towards its south-west are the Three Brothers, Eagle Islands, Egmont Islands and Danger Island; southeast of these is Diego Garcia, by far the largest island. All are low-lying atolls, save for a few extremely small instances, set around lagoons.

From 1715 to 1810, the Chagos Islands were part of France's Indian Ocean possessions, administered through Isle de France – which was a colony of France (later renamed as Mauritius). Under the Treaty of Paris in 1814, France ceded Isle de France and the Chagos Islands to the United Kingdom.

British Forces British Indian Ocean Territories (BFBIOT) is the name for the British Armed Forces Permanent Joint Operating Base (PJOB) on Diego Garcia, in the British Indian Ocean Territory. While the naval and airbase facilities on Diego Garcia are leased to the United States as Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, in practice, the base operates as a joint UK-US base, with the United Kingdom retaining full and continual access.

Diego Garcia is strategically located, offering access to East Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The base serves as a staging area for the buildup or resupply of military forces prior to an operation.

Plant ecology is a subdiscipline of ecology that studies the distribution and abundance of plants, the effects of environmental factors upon the abundance of plants, and the interactions among plants and between plants and other organisms. Examples of these are the distribution of temperate deciduous forests in North America, the effects of drought or flooding upon plant survival, and competition among desert plants for water, or effects of herds of grazing animals upon the composition of grasslands.

A global overview of the Earth's major vegetation types is provided by O.W. Archibold. He recognizes 11 major vegetation types: tropical forests, tropical savannas, arid regions (deserts), Mediterranean ecosystems, temperate forest ecosystems, temperate grasslands, coniferous forests, tundra (both polar and high mountain), terrestrial wetlands, freshwater ecosystems and coastal/marine systems. This breadth of topics shows the complexity of plant ecology, since it includes plants from floating single-celled algae up to large canopy forming trees.

The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the United States Armed Forces provides to soldiers stationed or assigned overseas, and is headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland. AFN comprises two subordinate overseas commands and one directorate in the continental United States. Overseas, AFN Europe is headquartered at Sembach Kaserne in Germany and consists of 15 subordinate stations in the countries of Bahrain, Belgium, Cuba, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Turkey. AFN Pacific is headquartered at Yokota Air Base in Japan and consists of nine stations in Diego Garcia, Japan, and South Korea. Stations under AFN Europe and AFN Pacific broadcast live local radio shows Monday through Friday, with the exception of U.S. federal holidays. Stateside, AFN's broadcast operations, which include global radio and television satellite feeds, emanate from the AFN Broadcast Center at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California.

Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, abbreviated NSF Diego Garcia, is a British Indian Ocean Territory facility used by the Royal Navy and leased to the United States Navy, located on the atoll Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Camp Thunder Cove is part of the facility, and is operated by the United States Armed Forces and British Armed Forces.

The base was built between 1971 and 1976 following the expulsion of 2,000 Chagosians, descendants of imported plantation workers, from Diego Garcia and other islands in the Chagos Archipelago. In October 2024, the British government announced a deal that would see the Chagos Islands sovereignty be transferred to Mauritius and the Navy Support Facility Diego Garcia would be leased to the British government for an initial period of 99 years.

20°12′S 57°30′E / 20.2°S 57.5°E / -20.2; 57.5

The Outer Islands of Mauritius (French: Îles éparses de Maurice) is the first-level administrative divisions of Mauritius and consists of several outlying islands. The Outer Islands of Mauritius are managed under the aegis of the Prime Minister of Mauritius through Prime Minister's Office by the Outer Islands Development Corporation which is the authority empowered under the law to manage the Outer Islands of Mauritius. The Prime Minister is also Minister for Rodrigues, Outer Islands and Territorial Integrity. The Constitution of Mauritius states that the Republic of Mauritius includes the islands of Agaléga, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Saint Brandon (Cargados Carajos shoals), Tromelin Island, and the Chagos Archipelago (including Diego Garcia and other associated islands). The Chagos Archipelago are set to be returned to Mauritius in 2025, after a long dispute with the United Kingdom. Additionally, France shares a sovereignty claim over Tromelin Island, an uninhabited island between Madagascar and Mauritius's main island.