Nikkei Asia By RHYANNON BARTLETT-IMADEGAWA
LONDON — A U.K.-U.S. military outpost on a remote atoll in the Indian Ocean is gaining increased strategic significance as the two allies seek to increase their engagement in the Indo-Pacific through initiatives such as the new AUKUS security pact.
Diego Garcia sits in the middle of the ocean, roughly 1,770 km east of the main island of the Seychelles. With a land area of around 44 sq. km, the atoll is the largest and most southerly of the 58 islands in the Chagos Archipelago, known as the British Indian Ocean Territories (BIOT).
With no permanent population, only people linked to the military facility, which dates back to the 1970s, or to the territory’s administration can access the island…
