Kennedy thanks King Charles III for speech to Congress, urges him to protect Diego Garcia military base

Kennedy thanks King Charles III for speech to Congress, urges him to protect Diego Garcia military base Apr 29 2026 Watch Kennedy’s comments here . WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) thanked King Charles III for his speech before the joint meeting of Congress and urged the United Kingdom’s political leadership to do more to protect the Chagos Islands, including the joint U.S.-U.K. military base on the island of Diego Garcia, in a speech on the U.S. Senate floor. Key excerpts of the speech are below: “King Charles spoke to a joint session of Congress today. I thank him so much for coming. He was eloquent. He was charming. He was funny. He talked about the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. And we do have a special relationship, and I hope it can continue.” . . . “I don’t know what the King is going to talk to the president about. I don’t know if he is carrying messages from the political leadership in the United Kingdom. That is all above my pay grade. But if the King is carrying a message from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to try to convince our president to give away the Diego Garcia military base to an African country, which is the BFF of China, I hope our president will continue to resist. I hope he will respond to that request, if it is made, by saying: The short answer is no. The long answer is hell no.” Background: Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands, houses a joint U.S.-U.K. military base—one of the only bases in the world where the U.S. military can reload submarines. Despite the base’s importance, the U.K. has sided with left-wing activists by moving to cede control of the Chagos Islands to the small island nation of Mauritius. Mauritius, located more than 1,200 miles from the Chagos Islands, has become increasingly aligned with the Chinese Communist Party. Its prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, has signaled his intent to bolster diplomatic relations with China, once relaying that President Xi Jinping told him, “China never forgets its friends.” Kennedy has long condemned the United Kingdom’s planned giveaway of the Chagos Islands. Shortly after the proposed deal’s announcement in October 2024, Kennedy released a statement lambasting the decision as “dangerous and irresponsible,” making him one of the chief American opponents of the Chagos giveaway. The same month, Kennedy authored an op-ed in The Hill further denouncing the move and wrote a letter to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken seeking answers about the Biden administration’s involvement in the deal. On four occasions from November 2024 to February 2025 , Kennedy took to the U.S. Senate floor to urge the U.S. and U.K. governments to abandon the deal. In January 2025, Kennedy hosted two leading British critics of the Chagos giveaway, Baron Dean Godson and Julia Mizen of the U.K.-based think tank Policy Exchange, at his office. Later that month, Kennedy penned an op-ed in The Telegraph , arguing in part that “[t]he idea that the U.K. must hand over the islands to atone for whatever perceived wrongs Britain’s forefathers may have committed is nonsense.” In April 2025, Kennedy participated in a Wall Street Journal documentary about the Chagos Islands deal, calling it “stone-cold stupid.” In January 2026, Kennedy published another op-ed in The Telegraph, once again urging the U.K. to work with the Trump administration to protect Diego Garcia. He followed this op-ed with a February speech on the Senate floor elaborating on his argument. In February 2026, Kennedy led a letter to the Trump administration encouraging Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to oppose the deal. In March 2026, Kennedy introduced the Diego Garcia Treaty Oversight Act , which would require the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate for any changes to the 1966 treaty between the U.S. and U.K. concerning the British Indian Ocean Territory. Watch Kennedy’s speech here .