Summary: Non-signatory Turkmenistan has never commented on cluster munitions or on its position on accession to the convention. It abstained from voting on a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016. Turkmenistan participated in a meeting of the convention in 2015. It is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions, but inherited a stockpile from the Soviet Union.

Policy

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

It did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the convention and has never made a public statement on cluster munitions or its position on accession.

In December 2016, Turkmenistan abstained from the vote on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that calls on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[1] It was absent from the vote on a subsequent UNGA resolution on the convention in 2015.[2]

Turkmenistan participated as an observer in the First Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in September 2015, but did not make a statement. This marked its first and to date only attendance at a meeting of the convention.

Turkmenistan is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Turkmenistan is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions.

Turkmenistan inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions from the Soviet Union but it has never publicly disclosed information regarding the types and quantities stockpiled.[3] It is reported to possess Smerch 300mm, Uragan 220mm, and Grad 122mm unguided surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[4] Turkmenistan ordered six additional Smerch rocket launchers in 2008, which it reportedly received in 2009–2010.[5]