Five-Year Summary: State Party Moldova was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010. It has reported existing legislation under national implementation measures. Moldova has participated in most of the convention’s meetings.

In its initial transparency report for the convention provided in January 2011, Moldova confirmed it has not produced or used cluster munitions. Moldova completed the destruction of a stockpile of 1,385 cluster munitions and 27,050 submunitions on 29 July 2010, two days before the convention’s entry into force. It is not retaining any live cluster munitions for research and training.

Policy

The Republic of Moldova signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 16 February 2010. It was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.

Moldova has reported its ratification legislation under national implementation measures and also states that the Criminal Code “envisages penal sanctions for the storage, purchase, selling and use of weapons and ammunitions.”[1]

Moldova submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 27 January 2011 and provided annual updated reports in 2012 and 2013 indicating no change.[2]

Moldova participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[3]

Moldova engages in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It participated in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2010, 2011, 2012, and the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San Jose, Costa Rica in September 2014. Moldova participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2012 and 2013, but did not attend the meetings held in 2014 or 2015.  

Moldova voted in favor of two UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions in 2013 that condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[4]

Moldova has yet to elaborate its views on several important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention, such as the prohibitions on transit, foreign stockpiling, assistance with prohibited acts in joint military operations, and investment in cluster munition production. In a 2011 statement, Moldova highlighted the importance of a “uniform understanding of those provisions that raise problems of interpretation, including on the interpretation of the relationship between Articles 1 and 21.”[5]

Moldova is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, and transfer

In 2009, Moldova stated, “The Republic of Moldova has never produced, used, nor does it plan to use, stockpile or transfer cluster munitions.”[6] In its 2011 Article 7 report, Moldova declared that it has no production facilities for antipersonnel landmines. Moldova also declared that it “did not use or abandon cluster munitions on the territory of other states.”[7] In 2001, Moldova reported the transfer of 860 9M27K rockets to Guinea during the previous year.[8]

Moldovan authorities have stated that they have no information about possible use, transfer, or stockpiling of cluster munitions by the military forces of the breakaway region of Transnistria or by Russian military forces still stationed there.[9] Moldovan authorities have repeatedly called for a fact-finding mission to be sent in Transnistria to gather information on stockpiled weapons and ensure their removal and destruction.[10] In its Article 7 report, Moldova stated that if cluster munitions were identified in the Transnistrian region, support and financial assistance could be needed to ensure implementation of Moldova’s stockpile destruction obligations under the convention.[11]

Stockpile destruction

Moldova inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions from the former Soviet Union.[12] In its initial Article 7 report, it declared a stockpile of 1,385 cluster munitions and 27,050 submunitions.[13] This included 473 9M27K Uragan 220mm surface-to-surface rockets containing a total of 14,190 9N210 fragmentation submunitions that were destroyed by the Moldovan National Army in 2006.[14]

When Moldova signed the convention in December 2008, it possessed 78 air-delivered cluster bombs produced by the Soviet Union from 1961–1987 and 834 3-O-13 152mm cluster munition artillery projectiles.[15]

Moldova completed the destruction of its stockpile of cluster munitions on 29 July 2010, two days before the convention’s entry into force.[16] Moldovan Army engineers carried out the stockpile destruction at the Bulboaca destruction site near Chisinau, using a combination of methods including dismantling, burning, and detonation.[17]

Retention

Moldova has stated that it will not acquire or retain any live cluster munitions for training and research purposes.[18] It has declared the retention of 19 submunitions that have been rendered free from explosives for training and display purposes.[19]