They have never sought to resettle on Diego Garcia, which remains off-limits and leased to the US government until 2016 – and continues to play a vital role in Western security and defense. Given Cameron’s determination to place the US-UK relationship on a more equal footing than it was under Labour, I hope he will feel free to raise this issue with the Obama administration; indeed, a deal between the late UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was apparently very nearly closed some years ago.