Bhutan

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 13 September 2021

Summary

Non-signatory Bhutan has expressed interest in the convention but has not taken any steps to join it. Bhutan has participated in several meetings of the convention since 2015 and it has voted in favor of the annual United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention.

According to Bhutan, it does not possess cluster munitions. It is not known to have used, produced, or transferred these weapons.

Policy

The Kingdom of Bhutan has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Bhutan has never made a public statement detailing its position on joining the convention, but officials have expressed the government’s support for the convention’s objectives.[1] In September 2019, a government representative told the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) that resource constraints have prevented Bhutan from undertaking the process necessary to accede to the convention.[2]

Bhutan did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Bhutan has participated as an observer in several meetings of the convention since 2015, most recently the Ninth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2019 and an Asia-Pacific workshop in Manila, the Philippines on 18–19 June 2019.[3] It was invited to, but did not attend the first part of the convention’s Second Review Conference held virtually in November 2020

In December 2020, Bhutan voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[4] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Bhutan is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Bhutan is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions. In 2010, a government representative said that Bhutan is a peaceful country that does not possess cluster munitions and has no plans to acquire them.[5]



[1] In October 2010, Bhutan’s permanent representative to the UN in New York told the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) that the government views the convention as “a commendable achievement” and was “looking at it very closely with a view to taking positive action” on accession. Meeting with Amb. Lhatu Wangchuk, Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Bhutan to the UN in New York, New York, 19 October 2010. Notes by the CMC. See also, interview with Kingye Singye, Minister-Counselor, Embassy of the Kingdom of Bhutan, New Delhi, 29 January 2010.

[2] CMC meeting with Sanjay Needup, Senior Desk Officer, Political and International Security Division, Multilateral Dept., Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bhutan, Geneva, 2 September 2019.

[3] Bhutan attended meetings of States Parties in 2016, 2017, and 2019, as well as an intersessional meeting in Geneva in 2015. Monitor interview with Tandin Dorji, Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Bhutan to the UN in Geneva, Geneva, 22 June 2015. Bhutan did not participate in the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015 or intersessional meetings held in 2011–2014. See “Asia-Pacific Workshop on CCM Universalization,” Convention on Cluster Munitions Quarterly Newsletter, April 2019.

[4]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions”, UNGA Resolution 75/62, 7 December 2020.

[5] Meeting with Amb. Lhatu Wangchuk, Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Bhutan to the UN in New York, New York, 19 October 2010. Notes by the CMC.