Policy

Romania has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Romania last commented on its position on the ban convention in May 2013, when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Monitor that Romania considers the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) “as the adequate multilateral framework to examine and negotiate a legal instrument to regulate the use of this type of munition.”[1]

Romania is a party to CCW and supported efforts to conclude a draft CCW protocol on cluster munitions that failed in 2011, effectively ending CCW deliberations on cluster munitions and leaving the Convention on Cluster Munitions as the sole multilateral instrument to specifically address the weapons.

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. At the time, Romania explained that it wanted to wait for the outcome of CCW work on cluster munitions. Romania attended a number of diplomatic conferences of the Oslo Process that resulted in the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but did not actively engage in discussions. It attended the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 as an observer and therefore did not join in the consensus adoption of the convention.[2]

Since 2008, Romania has participated as an observer in just one meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, when it attended the Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011.

Romania has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s cluster munition use, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at Syria’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[3]

Romania is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Use

In 2013, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that “Romania has never used and does not intend to use cluster munition[s] in operational theaters. This type of ammunition is only used within the framework of the national defense program.”[4] Romanian officials have made similar statements in previous years.[5]

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

In 2013, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that “Romania is not a producer of cluster munition[s].”[6] In a 2011 letter to the Monitor, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs also stated “Romania is not a producer of cluster munition[s].”[7]

The Monitor believes, however, that there is clear evidence Romania has produced cluster munitions.

Jane’s Information Group reports that the company ROMAIR has developed and produced the CL-250 cluster bomb, which is described as similar in appearance to the Soviet RBK-250. It reportedly carries BAAT-10 antivehicle bomblets and BF-10T antipersonnel bomblets.[8]

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.[9] According to Jane’s Information Group, these cluster munitions, which contain GAA-001 submunitions, are a joint production and marketing venture with Israel Military Industries. The GAA-001 submunition is described as identical to the Israeli M85 DPICM and is produced by the Romanian company Aeroteh SA.[10]

Romania possesses a stockpile of cluster munitions but its size and composition is not known. In April 2011, Romania claimed that it “does not possess KMGU dispensers, RBK-250, RBK-275 [sic], and RBK-500 cluster bombs.”[11]