Summary: State Party Bulgaria ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 6 April 2011 and enacted implementing legislation in 2015. Bulgaria has attended every meeting of the convention and voted in favor of a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting the convention in December 2022.

Bulgaria has never used or produced cluster munitions, but it acquired them and once held a stockpile of 6,905 cluster munitions and 190,919 submunitions. Bulgaria completed destruction of the stockpile in June 2023, in advance of its 31 December 2023 deadline. Bulgaria is retaining six cluster munitions and 300 submunitions for research and training purposes.

Policy

The Republic of Bulgaria signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified it on 6 April 2011. The convention entered into force for the country on 1 October 2011.

Bulgaria’s implementing legislation for both the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Mine Ban Treaty took effect on 8 December 2015.[1] Its Penal Code was amended in June 2016 to provide sanctions for violations of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[2] A National Authority established in January 2012 coordinates Bulgaria’s implementation of and compliance with the convention.[3]

Bulgaria submitted an initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 27 March 2012. Since then, it has provided annual updated reports, most recently on 28 April 2023.[4]

Bulgaria played a notable role in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and hosted a regional conference promoting the convention in Sofia in September 2008.

Bulgaria has participated in every meeting of the convention, most recently the Tenth Meeting of States Parties in August–September 2022 and the intersessional meetings in May 2022, both held in Geneva, where it provided updates on its stockpile destruction progress.

Bulgaria voted in favor of a key UNGA resolution promoting implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2022.[5] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

In August 2022, Bulgaria condemned Russia’s use of cluster munitions in Ukraine, calling the use “a horrific reminder of the devastating impact and the high human costs this highly inhumane weapon is causing in terms of civil casualties.”[6]

In the past, Bulgaria condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria and voted in favor of UNGA and Human Rights Council resolutions expressing outrage at this cluster munition use.[7]

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

Interpretive issues

In 2009, Bulgaria elaborated its views on several important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention.[8] Bulgaria interprets Article 1 of the convention to mean that “transit” of cluster munitions across the territory of States Parties is prohibited, as is the stockpiling of foreign-owned cluster munitions. Bulgaria has noted that while a ban on investment in cluster munition production is not explicit in the convention text, it would need to be “considered in light of the general prohibition on the development and production of cluster munitions.”

With respect to “interoperability” and the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party, Bulgaria has stated that it “will fully observe the regulations of Article 21 of the Convention…Par. 4 of Article 21 stipulates that participation in such military operations ‘shall not authorize a State Party’ to engage in acts prohibited under the terms of the Convention and contains an exhaustive list of such acts.”

Use, production, and transfer

In 2009, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative said that “cluster munitions have never been used by the Bulgarian Armed Forces.”[9] Bulgaria was among a handful of states to announce a unilateral moratorium on the use of cluster munitions prior to the creation of the convention.[10]

Bulgaria formally confirmed in 2012 that there “are no programmes for the conversion or decommissioning of production facilities for cluster munitions in the Republic of Bulgaria.”[11] Previously, in 2008, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that “Bulgaria does not and has not produced any type of cluster munitions.”[12]

Bulgaria acquired a stockpile of cluster munitions from the Soviet Union.

Stockpiling

Bulgaria possessed a stockpile of 6,905 cluster munitions and 190,919 submunitions when the convention entered into force for the country, as listed in the following table:

Cluster munitions stockpiled by Bulgaria (as of October 2011)[13]

Note: N/A=not applicable.

The number of stockpiled cluster munitions has changed several times since 2012, when Bulgaria reported stockpiling 6,874 cluster munitions and 149,398 submunitions.[14] This increased in 2013 to 6,909 cluster munitions and 157,664 submunitions, after additional stocks were discovered.[15] An additional 15,497 submunitions were reported in 2014.[16]

Stockpile destruction

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Bulgaria was required to destroy all its stockpiled cluster munitions as soon as possible, but not later than 31 December 2023.

In July 2023, Bulgaria’s Ministry of Defence informed the Monitor that the last of Bulgaria’s stockpiled cluster munitions were destroyed on 28 June 2023, six months in advance of the deadline.[17]

Bulgaria’s initial 1 October 2019 deadline to destroy its cluster munition stocks was first extended to 1 October 2020.[18] A second extension further extended the deadline to 1 October 2022.[19] At the Tenth Meeting of States Parties in August–September 2022, Bulgaria was granted a third extension to its stockpile destruction deadline, until 31 December 2023.^[20] At the time, Bulgaria assured States Parties of its “dedication and commitment” to meeting the new deadline, stating it was on schedule to do so and committed to providing regular updates on progress.[21]

Bulgaria destroyed 35 cluster munitions in 2018; 35 cluster munitions and 4,170 submunitions in 2019; and 1,991 cluster munitions and 38,234 submunitions in 2020.[22] An explosion at a stockpile destruction facility on 21 December 2020 resulted in the suspension of the destruction process and no cluster munition stocks were destroyed during 2021.

In December 2019, Bulgaria amended legislation to allow it to transport its last cluster munition stocks outside of the country for destruction. By the end of 2022, all remaining cluster munition stocks once held by the Bulgarian Armed Forces had been transferred to Italy for destruction by an Italian company, Esplodenti Sabino Srl, at its facilities in Casalbordino.^[23]

The stockpile destruction resumed at the facility in Italy in February 2022 and scaled up rapidly, with 1,303 cluster munitions and 51,285 submunitions destroyed by the end 2022. During the first half of 2023, Bulgaria destroyed 2,285 cluster munitions and 47,529 submunitions.[24]

Bulgaria’s Ministry of Defence expects to receive the signed Certificates of Destruction from the Italian company by the end of July 2023, and then will deliver its Declaration of Completion to the convention’s Implementation Support Unit (ISU).[25] Bulgaria will formally announce the completion of its stockpile destruction at the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in September 2023.

Destruction of foreign stockpiles

Two states have transferred cluster munitions to Bulgaria for the purposes of stockpile destruction.

State Party Slovenia transferred 41,825 PAT-794 submunitions to Bulgaria in 2011.[26] In June 2018, Slovenia reported that the cluster munitions were “effectively and irreversibly destroyed” by contractor EXPAL Bulgaria.[27] Bulgaria’s 2018 Article 7 transparency report confirmed that “The Slovenian submunitions, declared in previous periods, have been destroyed.”[28]

Signatory Cyprus transferred 3,760 4.2-inch OF projectiles used for the GRM-20 mortar system, containing 2,559 M20G submunitions, to Bulgaria in 2014.[29] A total of 2,416 of the projectiles were destroyed by private company EXPAL Bulgaria at a facility in Bulgaria in 2018, while the remaining 1,344 4.2-inch OF projectiles were destroyed in August 2019.[30]

Retention

Bulgaria reported retaining a total of six 9N123K cluster munitions and 300 9N24 submunitions for research and training purposes, as of the end of 2022, as permitted under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[31] The Bulgarian Armed Forces consumed one cluster munition and 50 submunitions during training in June 2021.

Bulgaria had initially said that it had “no intention to retain cluster munitions or explosive submunitions for training purposes.”[32]