Chagos, British Indian Ocean Territory · UTC+6
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Chagos is in the Indian Ocean Time timezone (Indian/Chagos, UTC+6). The UK-administered archipelago’s main island, Diego Garcia, hosts a major US-UK military base.
The Chagos Archipelago is a group of islands in the central Indian Ocean, constituting the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). The main island, Diego Garcia, hosts a significant US-UK joint military facility. The territory runs on Indian/Chagos: UTC+6, year-round.
The Chagos Islands sit very close to the equator, around 7 degrees south. Daylight is consistent year-round: sunrise close to 6am, sunset around 6pm. The UTC+6 offset means solar noon falls close to 12pm, a reasonable alignment for the territory’s longitude of roughly 72 degrees east.
The displacement and the dispute
The British government expelled the entire Chagossian population from the islands between 1968 and 1973 to make way for the US military base. The Chagossians, descendants of workers brought to the islands in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, were forced to Mauritius and the Seychelles with little compensation or support.
In 2019, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion that Britain’s decolonization of Mauritius (which included detaching the Chagos Islands in 1965) was unlawful and that the UK should return the islands. Britain and the US have long resisted. In 2024, a deal was announced in principle to transfer sovereignty to Mauritius while maintaining the military base. Negotiations continue.
Military time
Diego Garcia operates primarily to serve the US and British military. The base functions on military scheduling with 24-hour time. The UTC+6 local time is used for operational coordination but military operations are also tracked on UTC. The island’s population is entirely military personnel and contracted workers, with no permanent civilian residents.
The time difference between Chagos and London is six hours ahead in winter, five in summer when the UK observes BST.
Sources
Read more about time in British Indian Ocean Territory →Same time as Chagos
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Questions about time in Chagos
- What timezone is Chagos in?
- Chagos uses the IANA timezone
Indian/Chagos. The UTC offset is always UTC+6 — this timezone does not observe daylight saving time. - Does Chagos observe daylight saving time?
- No. Chagos does not observe daylight saving time. The UTC offset remains UTC+6 all year round.
- What is the current UTC offset for Chagos?
- Chagos is currently at UTC+6.
- What is the time difference between Chagos and New York?
- Chagos is currently 10 hours ahead of New York.
- What is the time difference between Chagos and London?
- Chagos is currently 5 hours ahead of London.
- What is the time difference between Chagos and Los Angeles?
- Chagos is currently 13 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
- What is the time difference between Chagos and Tokyo?
- Chagos is currently 3 hours behind Tokyo.
- What is the IANA timezone name for Chagos?
- The IANA timezone database identifier for Chagos is
Indian/Chagos. Use this string in programming languages and APIs: JavaScript (`new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', { timeZone: 'Indian/Chagos' })`), Python (`pytz.timezone('Indian/Chagos')`), or any IANA-compatible library.