A former attorney-general has advised President Nikos Christodoulides to seek a renegotiation with the United Kingdom over the status of the British bases on the island, it emerged on Monday.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, on November 19 former attorney-general Costas Clerides sent a letter to the president calling for the “modernisation of the legal status” of the Sovereign Base Areas (SBA) on Cyprus.

Clerides urges the president to reach out to UK authorities and “begin a dialogue aimed at, not the full removal of the bases, but rather modernising their legal status”.

The former AG suggests that the bases are “limited to the absolutely necessary territory” and also that a timeframe is set for their presence on Cyprus “with appropriate financial tradeoffs”.

His letter to the president was reportedly also copied to the leaders of the parliamentary parties.

Clerides says such a new arrangement could be modeled on the recent deal between the UK and Mauritius over the status of the Chagos islands.

In a joint statement on October 3, the UK and Mauritius announced that the Chagos Archipelago would be recognised as part of Mauritius – with one condition: the UK and United States maintain their military presence on the largest island, Diego Garcia. The military base would continue operating there for the next 99 years.

In exchange, the UK would provide a financial support package to Mauritius, including annual payments and infrastructure investment.

In 2010, a WikiLeaks cable revealed that a UK official in the 1960s had called Chagossians “Man Fridays and Tarzans”, referring to the fictional Tarzan, a man raised by apes.

The revelation sparked anger. The same year, former Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam began a legal battle to win the territory back.

In 2018, Mauritius took the UK to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). A year later, in February 2019, the court issued a non-binding advisory opinion in favour of Mauritius: the UK had wrongfully forced the inhabitants of the island to leave to make way for a US airbase and, hence, should give up its control of Chagos, the ICJ said.

In a vote at the United Nations General Assembly in May 2019, 116 member states voted in favour of a resolution stating that the UK should give up the Chagos within six months. Only six members, including the United States, voted against it.

However, and despite international pressure, the UK flouted that resolution. But subsequent talks between the UK and Mauritius culminated in a deal.