Summary: Non-signatory Mongolia has expressed support for the ban on cluster munitions but has not taken any steps to join the convention. Mongolia has participated in meetings of the convention and attended a regional workshop in June 2019. Mongolia voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2018.

Mongolia is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions. In 2014, Mongolia informed the Monitor that it does not have any stocks of the weapons.

Policy

Mongolia has not taken steps to accede to the convention but government officials have expressed interest in doing so. In 2013, Mongolia told States Parties that the convention prohibits “one of the most inhumane weapons of today” and said that “the only guarantee against the risk of the use and proliferation of these weapons is their total elimination.” [1]

Mongolia did not participate in the 2007–2008 Oslo Process that created the convention. Mongolia first participated in a meeting related to the convention in November 2009, when it attended a regional workshop on cluster munitions in Bali, Indonesia.

Mongolia has participated as an observer in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, but not since 2014. [2] It attended an Asia-Pacific workshop on the convention in Manila, Philippines on 18–19 June 2019. [3]

In December 2018, Mongolia voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution, which urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.” [4] Mongolia voted in favor of the annual resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Mongolia is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

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

In September 2014, a representative of Mongolia’s armed forces informed the Monitor that Mongolia possesses no stockpiles of cluster munitions. [5]

Jane’s Information Group reported in 2004 that the country’s air force had KMGU dispensers that deliver submunitions. [6] Mongolia possesses Grad 122mm surface-to-surface launchers, but it is not known if these include rockets with submunition payloads. [7]

Policy

Mongolia has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty and did not fulfill its objective, announced in 2004, of joining the treaty in 2008 through a step-by-step approach.[1]

In June 2011, Mongolia informed States Parties that it “continues to pursue a step-by-step (or phased) policy towards accession to the Convention due to a range of security and economic concerns.”[2] However, it did not mention the interagency action plan to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty that it had announced at the Tenth Meeting of States Parties and at the Second Review Conference.[3] In 2010, Mongolia informed States Parties that it would join the treaty “in the near future.”[4] Earlier, in October 2010, during a UN General Assembly (UNGA) debate, Mongolia stated that “Just a few days ago the Prime Minister re-affirmed Mongolia’s commitment to accede to the Convention.”[5]

Mongolia has repeatedly stated that it has limited resources to implement the treaty, especially with respect to stockpile destruction, and it encouraged “cooperation, assistance and support” from other countries and international organizations.[6] In the past, representatives from Mongolia have expressed concern about whether Mongolia will receive international assistance for both stockpile destruction and clearance of areas contaminated with unexploded ordnance, especially Soviet-era firing ranges.[7]

Mongolia has infrequently attended Mine Ban Treaty meetings, and has not participated as an observer since the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in November–December 2011.

On 5 December 2018, Mongolia voted in favor of Resolution 73/61 calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, as in previous years.[8]

Mongolia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but not its Amended Protocol II on landmines or Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Mongolia is also not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Use, stockpiling, production, and transfer

Mongolia submitted a voluntary Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in August 2007.[9] The report revealed a stockpile of 206,417 antipersonnel mines, exported by the Soviet Union.[10] At the government’s invitation, in July 2009, technical experts from the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) investigated the condition of Mongolia’s mine stocks. At the Second Review Conference, Mongolia reported that it had destroyed 100 antipersonnel mines in the previous year and that it would destroy another 100 in the following year to help identify a destruction technology that is both environmentally safe and cost effective.[11]

In December 2010, Mongolia stated that it had a stockpile of 206,317 antipersonnel mines (100 mines fewer than the number reported in August 2007) and would destroy another 380 mines in 2011 to demonstrate “our step-by-step approach to join the Convention.”[12] However, in June 2011, Mongolia reported that it had 206,417 antipersonnel mines and that 110 had been destroyed to “define an appropriate mine destruction technique friendly to the environment.”[13] A representative of the Ministry of Defense could not provide any information on the method of destruction used, but he did confirm that Mongolia would not necessarily need to retain any live mines for training purposes since it currently uses inert mines in its training programs.[14]

In the past, Mongolia often stated that it has never used antipersonnel mines on its territory.[15] In December 2010, Mongolia reaffirmed that it will not “transfer, acquire or place landmines.”[16]