AFP,
ISRAEL played a discreet but sizeable role in helping set up Singapore's military, former Israeli senior officers said in interviews published in the Haaretz newspaper today.
The two countries' cooperation began in December 1965 when an Israeli military delegation headed by Major General Yaakov Elazari visited Singapore.
The city state's then prime minister and founding father Lee Kuan Yew had asked for Israel's military assistance after the country's independence from Malaysia in August 1965.
Mr Lee had allegedly been turned down by India and Egypt.
The Israeli military delegation, consisting of six high-ranking officers, was charged with advising the government on establishing its security and defence ministries as well as setting up its army after Israel's own.
They also trained Singapore's first batch of officers.
Bilateral relations have since flourished and arms trade between Israel and Singapore reached more than $US1 million ($1.38 million) dollars in 2000, according to Israeli military sources quoted in the British intelligence weekly Jane's.
