Summary: Non-signatory Vietnam acknowledges the human suffering caused by cluster munitions, but before it can accede to the convention it must overcome long-held concerns with certain provisions. Vietnam has participated as an observer in the convention’s meetings. It abstained from voting on a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2017.

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] Officials regularly state that Vietnam is studying the convention and the implications of acceding.[2]

Vietnam has long expressed concern that 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] In November 2015, it said it remains concerned by the way the convention lists “proportional responsibility for victim assistance and remnant clearance first in affected countries, most of which are developing countries.”

Related to this is Vietnam’s long-standing concern that it would not be able to meet the convention’s obligation to clear contaminated areas within 10 years.[4]

In December 2017, 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 abstained from the vote on previous UNGA resolutions promoting implementation and universalization of the convention in 2015 and 2016.[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, most recently the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2017.[8] It also 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.