CHAGOS ARCHIPELAGO

island group, a major geographic feature of the British Indian Ocean Territory, located in the central Indian Ocean about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) south of the tip of the Indian subcontinent. The archipelago has a total area of 23 square miles (60 square km) and constitutes a semicircular group, open to the east, comprising (counterclockwise from the north) the Salomon Islands; Peros Banhos atoll; Three Brothers, Eagle, and Danger islands; the Egmont Islands; and Diego Garcia atoll, the largest landmass in the group. Because it is strategically situated at the centre of the Indian Ocean region and lies out of the path of cyclonic storms, the archipelago was developed, especially at Diego Garcia, as an air and naval refueling and support station by the United States and Great Britain. This development took place in the 1960s and '70s over the strong opposition of the littoral and island states of the area, who wish to preserve the zone of peace status of the ocean embodied in United Nations resolutions.