Summary: Non-signatory Vietnam has expressed support for the convention’s humanitarian objectives, but must overcome its concerns with key provisions of the convention before it can accede. Vietnam has participated as an observer in the convention’s meetings, but abstained from a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016.

Vietnam states that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions. The United States (US) used air-delivered cluster munitions extensively in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s.

Policy

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

Vietnam supports the humanitarian objectives of the convention, but says it cannot join until it can ensure it is able to meet the convention’s obligations.[1] In November 2015, Vietnam stated that, “A number of important obligations under the Convention remain of concern to us. The Convention still lists its proportional responsibility for victim assistance and remnant clearance first in affected countries, most of which are developing countries. Another difficulty is the ability to meet the clearance obligation under article 4 of the Convention.”[2]

Since 2008, Vietnam has expressed concern at its 10-year deadline to clear areas contaminated by cluster munition remnants, which it has estimated could take it “decades, even a hundred year[s] to fully complete.” Vietnam says the convention lacks a “mechanism” for ensuring international support and cooperation and wants certain states to join the convention, namely “cluster munitions users, producers and exporters” that “must be responsible for assisting affected countries.”[3]

Officials regularly state that Vietnam is studying the convention and the implications of acceding.[4]

In December 2016, Vietnam abstained from the vote on a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that calls on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[5] Vietnam also abstained from the vote on the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[6]

Vietnam participated in two of the international Oslo Process conferences to develop the convention text, but attended the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008 only as an observer.[7] It participated in a regional conference on cluster munitions in Bali, Indonesia, in 2009 and an international conference in Santiago, Chile, in 2010.

Vietnam has participated as an observer in almost every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2016.[8] It attended the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015 and intersessional meetings in 2011–2014.

Vietnam is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Vietnam signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1981, but never ratified.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In September 2012, Vietnam informed States Parties, “We do not produce, store, use or encourage to [sic] use cluster munitions.”[9]

In the past, some officials have said that Vietnam does not stockpile cluster munitions, but others were less certain.[10] A May 2010 position paper states that “foreign reports” show that Vietnam has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[11]

However, Jane’s Information Group cites the Vietnam Air Force as possessing KMGU submunition dispensers.[12]

The US used air-delivered cluster munitions extensively in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, creating a legacy of contamination.