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Vietnam

Last Updated: 31 July 2012

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Vietnam has expressed its full support for the humanitarian aims of the convention on several occasions, but it has often expressed concern that important producers and stockpilers of cluster munitions have not joined the convention.

On 5 December 2011, Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Le Luong Minh, stated that “the fact that the Convention lays the primary responsibilities on resolving consequences of the use of cluster munitions mainly with affected countries, while international cooperation and assistance mechanisms have not been specified, is not supportive to the achievement of the humanitarian goals of the Convention itself.” He emphasized that “Viet Nam believes that those responsibilities should be laid with countries that had produced, used and exported cluster munitions. Only when this matter is resolved in a fair manner can we assure the universalization and effective implementation of the Convention.”[1]

The Deputy Foreign Minister also expressed concern that “The deadline set by the Convention for a State Party to clear all the cluster munition contaminated areas in its territories within 10 years and with no more than 5 years of extension is considered to create a tremendous difficulty for Viet Nam,” which he described as “seriously affected by cluster munitions and with limited resources.”[2]  

In a statement to the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in September 2011, Vietnam said that it “supports the spirit and the humanitarian and disarmament goals” of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and noted “the increasing number of States that have become Parties” but again expressed concern at its ability to meet the convention’s clearance obligation as well, “concerns over the fact that victim states, rather than user states, are responsible for solving consequences of past use of cluster munitions while the mechanisms for international cooperation has yet to be institutionalized.”[3]

Previously, in 2010, senior officials informed the CMC that the government was studying a number of issues to address concerns relating to the convention through an interministerial policy review process.[4]

Vietnam participated in two of the international Oslo Process diplomatic conferences to develop the convention text, but attended the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008 as an observer.[5] Vietnam has continued to participate in meetings related to the convention. It attended a regional conference in Bali, Indonesia in 2009 and an international conference in Santiago, Chile in 2010. Vietnam sent a large high-level observer delegation to the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010. It attended the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut Lebanon in September 2011 as well as intersessional meetings in Geneva in June 2011 and April 2012.

Local NGOs have undertaken a number of activities in support of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[6]

Vietnam is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Vietnam is also not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Vietnam is not known to have ever used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions. It is not clear if it possesses a stockpile. Some officials have said that Vietnam does not have a stockpile, but others have been less than certain.[7] Vietnam’s May 2010 position paper states that foreign reports show that Vietnam has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[8]

 



[1] Statement by H.E. Mr. Le Luong Minh, Deputy Foreign Minister, at the workshop on Joint Efforts in Mitigating the Consequences of Bomb and Mine Remnants of War, Hanoi, 5 December 2011.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Statement by Vietnam to the Second Meeting of States Parties, Convention on Cluster Munitions, Beirut, 14 September 2011, http://bit.ly/JjnNG6.

[4] The process was being led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with engagement by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs. Thomas Nash, Coordinator, “Report on Cluster Munition Coalition Visit to Vietnam, 10–11 May 2010,” CMC.

[5] For more details on Vietnam’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 261–262.

[6] In August 2011, the Association for Empowerment for Person with Disability held an event to mark the first anniversary of the Convention’s entry into force, http://bit.ly/pLBRPS.

[7] During the CMC mission in May 2010, a Foreign Ministry official said there were not stocks, but a Defense Ministry official was not clear on the issue. Thomas Nash, “Report on Cluster Munition Coalition Visit to Vietnam, 10–11 May 2010,” CMC.

[8] “Vietnam’s Position on Cluster Munition Convention,” undated, but provided to ANZCMC on 26 May 2010.