Summary

Non-signatory Romania has not taken any steps to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has never participated in a meeting of the convention, even as an observer, and abstained from voting on a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2021.

Romania states that it has never used or produced cluster munitions, but there is clear evidence of past production. Romania possesses a stockpile of cluster munitions.

Policy

Romania has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Romania last commented on the convention in 2015, when an official said that Romania was not prepared to join it, but supported efforts aimed at “identifying solutions to all humanitarian problems” raised by cluster munitions.[1]

Romania attended the February 2007 conference that launched the Oslo Process, but did not endorse the conference’s Oslo Declaration, which pledged to conclude in 2008 a legally binding instrument prohibiting cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians.

Romania attended several diplomatic conferences of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but did not actively engage in discussions. It participated in the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 as an observer, and therefore did not join in the consensus adoption of the convention.[2]

Romania participated as an observer at the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011, which marked its first and to date only attendance at a meeting of the convention. It was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021.

In December 2021, Romania abstained from voting on a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[3] Romania has abstained from voting on the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

In 2015–2018, Romania endorsed a joint UNGA statement on cluster munitions, which was made by Poland on behalf of itself and other European Union (EU) member states that are not party to the convention—Estonia, Finland, and Greece. The statement reiterated the need for these states to meet their own “legitimate security concerns and military and defence needs.”[4]

In March 2022, Romania endorsed a statement by the EU Delegation to the UN that condemned Russia’s use of cluster munitions in Ukraine.[5]

Romania is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use

In 2015, a government representative said, “Romania has never used and does not intend to use cluster munitions in operational theatres.”[6] Romanian officials have made similar comments in previous years.[7]

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Romania states that it is not a producer of cluster munitions. In a 2011 letter to the Monitor, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs asserted that “Romania is not a producer of cluster munition[s].”[8] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeated in 2013 that “Romania is not a producer of cluster munition[s].”[9]

There is clear evidence that Romania has produced cluster munitions in the past. The Monitor will continue to list Romania as a cluster munition producer until it formally commits to never produce cluster munitions again.

According to Jane’s Information Group, the company ROMAIR developed and produced the CL-250 cluster bomb, which is described as similar in appearance to the Soviet RBK-250, and reportedly carries BAAT-10 and BF-10T bomblets.[10]

The company Romarm has listed two types of 152mm dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) artillery projectiles, the CG-540 and CG-540ER, on its website in the past.[11] According to Jane’s Information Group, the cluster munitions contain GAA-001 submunitions that were produced by Romanian company Aeroteh SA, as part of a joint production and marketing venture with Israel Military Industries (IMI).[12]

Romania possesses a stockpile of cluster munitions, but has not provided information on the quantities and types.[13]

Policy

Romania signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, and ratified it on 30 November 2000, becoming a State Party on 1 May 2001. Romania believes that existing legislation is sufficient to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically.

Romania served on the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction in 2001–2003 and 2011–2012. It also served as Vice President of the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties in 2012.

Romania has attended most meetings of the treaty, including the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. More recently, Romania attended the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018 and the intersessional meetings in Geneva in May 2019, but did not provide a statement at either meeting.

Romania is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Romania is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, use, and stockpiling

Romanian state factories produced seven types of antipersonnel landmines: the MAI 2 stake fragmentation mine, the MAI 68 blast mine, the MAI 75 blast mine, the MAI-GR 1 blast mine, the MAI-GR 2 blast mine, the MAIGA-4 directional fragmentation mine, and the MSS bounding mine.[1] Romania was also a landmine exporter; its mines reportedly were used in the conflict in Iraqi Kurdistan.[2] Antipersonnel mine production ceased in 1990 and an export moratorium entered into effect in 1995.

Romania completed the destruction of its stockpile of 1,075,074 antipersonnel mines in March 2004. It initially retained 4,000 antipersonnel mines for training purposes but revised this number to 2,500 in 2004. This number was further reduced to 2,395 in 2013, and has remained unchanged through the end of 2018.[3]