§ Mr. Newensasked the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many members of Her Majesty's Services are currently serving with the armed forces of the Sultan of Muscat and Oman;
- (2) how many British officers in Her Majesty's Services have been seconded to the service of the Sultan of Muscat and Oman annually from 1965 to the present time;
- (3) how many British citizens, including members of Her Majesty's Armed Services, have been killed and wounded in military operations in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman in each of the last five years;
- (4) to what extent British Royal Air Force bases, planes and personnel are being used to assist the armed forces of the Sultan of Muscat and Oman in anti-guerrilla activities;
- (5) how many bombing attacks have been made by British military aircraft on villages and livestock in areas in which guerrillas are active in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman;
- (6) what military aid has been supplied to the Sultan of Muscat and Oman during the course of the last five years; and whether this aid is supplied under the terms of the 1951 Treaty;
- (7) if he will make a statement on the future of British bases and other military commitments in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman.
§ Mr. HattersleyThe Sultanate of Muscat and Oman is a fully sovereign and independent State with which Her Majesty's Government has no defence treaty. The Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation of 1951 (Cmnd. 8462) contains no military aid commitment. Assistance to the Sultan of Muscat and Oman in the defence field is provided under the arrangements referred to in the Exchange of Letters of 25th July, 1958 (Cmnd. 507). These arrangements also cover the use by the Royal Air Force of the airfields at Masirah and Salalah.
418WThe continued use of Masirah was referred to in the Supplementary Statement on Defence Policy of July, 1968 (Cmnd. 3701, paragraph 69) and the continuing assistance in the development of the armed forces of the Sultan of Muscat in the Statement on the Defence Estimates 1969 (Cmnd. 3927, paragraph 25).
Her Majesty's Government has given the Sultan no financial support for defence purposes since 1967.
In each of the last five years, there has been a total of some 40 officers of the Royal Marines, the Army and the Royal Air Force and 7 Army other ranks serving with the armed forces of the Sultan on secondment. The operations in Dhofar in which some of the seconded personnel have taken part were referred to in this year's Statement on the Defence Estimates (Cmnd. 4290, Chapter II, paragraph 25).
No member of Her Majesty's Forces or United Kingdom based British citizens for whom the Ministry of Defence is responsible have been killed or wounded in military operations in the Sultanate in the last five years and no bombing attacks have been made by British military aircraft.