Britain hid nuclear weapons in Cyprus and Singapore during the Cold War without telling the unsuspecting host governments, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday citing a soon-to-be-published study.
The British paper says that as early as 1960, Britain deployed tactical nuclear weapons at its Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Akrotiri in southern Cyprus, according the Chicago-based Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
The report claims that two years later, then British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan personally authorised nuclear arms to be stored in the RAF's Tengah base in Singapore.
Recently declassified files reveal that neither Malaysia's Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman -- Singapore was then a part of the Malaysian Federation -- nor Cyprus' leader at the time, Archbishop Makarios, were aware of the deployment.
According to Stephen Schwartz, publisher of the Bulletin, "If this information had been available to the public in Cyprus and Singapore at that time, I don't think these operations would ever have been carried out".
The Sunday Times says that a squadron of British bombers able to carry nuclear arms remained in Singapore until 1970 and in Cyprus until 1975 although it is not known how long they remained equipped with nuclear weapons -- LONDON (AFP)
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