It is no surprise that Britain kept nuclear weapons at a base in Singapore in the early 1960s and it will hardly be surprising if the island state still allows for such weapons in its bases at present, said an opposition leader today.

PRM president Dr Syed Husin Ali said this was apparent from the fact that Singapore was "trying hard" to offer bases to superpowers with nuclear capabilities.

He said that in recent times the Singapore government had invited the US to shift its naval bases along with its nuclear ships to be based on that island after the closure of the US bases in the Philippines..

Syed Husin was commenting on a recently published [#1]report[/#] that tactical nuclear weapons were kept at the Tengah Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Singapore in 1962.

Unknown to local government

The report stated that the decision to store the weapons in Singapore by the British government was not informed to the then prime minister of Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj. Singapore was still part of Malaya then.

The report, based on official British documents declassified recently under the 30-year rule, was published in the latest edition of Chicago-based [#2]Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists[/#] .

The report showed that Britain made nuclear deployments overseas during the Cold War (1945-1991), although the British government never drew attention at the time to its nuclear weapons movements abroad.

Britain had deployed tactical nuclear weapons at RAF Akrotiri in southern Cyprus in 1960 and two years later the then Britain prime minister, Harold Macmillan, had personally authorised the storage of such weapons in Singapore.

"But (the then) Malaysian prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, although generally pro-British, was not informed," stated the report, prepared by a historian specialising on Britain's nuclear defences, Richard Moore.

Moore said that the decision to store nuclear weapons in Singapore was to protect the Southeast Asia region from the possible advances of China.

"Policy-makers saw Britain's nuclear force as an important contribution not only to Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), but also to the South East Asia Treaty Organisation (Seato), created in 1954. In 1956 a report to the Chiefs of Staff concluded that nuclear weapons would have to be used if war broke out between the Seato powers and China."

Moore added that the report recommended developing Gan, an island in the Maldives, as a staging post for bomber reinforcements, and Tengah, an existing RAF base in Singapore, as a temporary base for the British Valiant, Vulcan, and Victor aircraft (known as "V-bombers") carrying the Blue Danube bomb.

He revealed that in 1958 it was decided that a permanent storage facility for nuclear weapons be constructed at Tengah.

Butterworth base

Moore disclosed that in September 1960, special equipment to handle nuclear weapons were also deployed at the Royal Australian Air Force base in Butterworth, Malaysia.

He said by making a nuclear contribution to Seato, Macmillan was trying to gain a measure of influence over US nuclear policy in a region where Britain and the US had historically been at odds.

However, the British government was "coy about admitting to the actual presence of nuclear weapons" stored in Singapore, said Moore.

He also revealed that four to eight V-bombers were dispatched to Tengah and Butterworth between 1963 and 1966 during the "confrontation" between Britain and Indonesia.

"These aircraft would have been tasked, if the confrontation had escalated, with conventional bombing of Indonesian airfields. But throughout the 1960s V-bombers were also sent to the Far East on Seato nuclear reinforcement exercises."

Moore said that the Canberra squadron at Tengah began low-altitude nuclear bombing exercises at the end of 1963 and had remained in the Far East until 1970, although it is not clear that it necessarily remained nuclear-equipped.

Not possible now

Defence analyst Mak Joon Nam, however, said that he had doubts if the Singaporean government would allow nuclear weapons to be based in the island now.

"Nuclear weapons can be very de-stabilising and they (the Singapore government) would not want it on their land. It will also make them a target of other nuclear powers," he said.

Mak, who is a director of research at the Maritime Institute of Malaysia, said that almost all Southeast Asian countries will not allow superpowers to store the nuclear weapons here.

However, he said that the situation is different when it comes to allowing nuclear-carrying warships passing through this region or even being serviced at local naval bases.

"The governments cannot stop these ships from passing thorough the Straits of Malacca as it is an international waterway.

"This is a different aspect. Nuclear armed ships are only passing through. They are not permanently based here," he said.

Breaching regional code

Syed Husin said that by allowing such ships to pass through the waters of Southeast Asia, the regional countries are compromising with the Zofpan (Southeast Asian Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality) and the South East Asia Nuclear Weapons-free Zone concepts agreed by them.

"The nations are forgetting these principles and are doing everything to break it. They allow superpowers to service their warships in local bases, like Lumut (Perak) in Malaysia, and some, like Singapore, welcome superpowers to shift their bases into this area," he said.

A retired naval officer, RC Ramakrishna, said that Malaysia will never allow any superpowers to store their nuclear weapons here.

"We have joint understanding with some of these superpowers in the event we need any military assistance but I don't think we will allow their nuclear weapons to be based here," he said.

"Malaysia is friendly with its neighbours and we have no need to have superpowers based here, let alone to store their nuclear weapons," he added.