Summary: Non-signatory Belarus acknowledges the humanitarian rationale for the convention, but objects to the way it was negotiated. Belarus has not participated in any meetings of the convention and abstained from voting in December 2015 on the first UN resolution on the convention. Belarus has not produced cluster munitions nor is it known to have used or exported them. It inherited a stockpile from the Soviet Union, but has not provided any information on the types or quantities possessed.

Policy

The Republic of Belarus has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Belarus rarely comments on its position on joining the convention.[1] After the convention was adopted in 2008, Belarus said it “shares the humanitarian concerns” caused by the use of cluster munitions but objected to the way in which the convention was negotiated outside UN auspices.[2]

On 7 December 2015, Belarus abstained from voting on the first UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[3] Belarus did not explain the reasons for its abstention from the non-binding resolution that 140 countries voted for, including many non-signatories.

In the past, Belarus expressed a preference for cluster munitions to be addressed through the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), to which it is party. However, Belarus has not proposed any new CCW work on cluster munitions since the 2011 failure of CCW states to agree a draft protocol on cluster munitions, effectively ending its deliberations on the weapons. The Convention on Cluster Munitions remains the sole international instrument on cluster munitions. Belarus did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has not attended any meetings of the convention in the period since 2008, not even as an observer.[4]

Belarus is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In 2010, Belarus said, “Our country is not a producer of cluster munitions.”[5] It is not known to have used or exported cluster munitions.

Belarus inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions from the Soviet Union. In 2010, Belarus said that it doesn’t have a “major” stockpile of cluster munitions, but it has not provided any information on the types or quantities.[6]

According to Jane’s Information Group, RBK-500 series cluster bombs are in service with the country’s air force.[7] Belarus also possesses Grad 122mm, Uragan 220mm, and Smerch 300mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[8]

According to a CMC member in Belarus, cluster munitions with expired shelf-life are regularly destroyed by the Ministry of Defense.[9]