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Vietnam

Last Updated: 03 September 2013

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

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

In September 2012, Vietnam informed States Parties that it has “strong support for the humanitarian goal of the Convention” and notes “the increasing number of States that have become Parties” but believes that “a number of important obligations under the Convention present great difficulties to the implementation” and that it would “not be in a position to complete clearance under the Article 4 deadline of ten years.” Vietnam said it was “of the view that states who have produced, used or abandoned cluster munitions must be accountable for the implementation of obligations under the Convention, including the clearance and destruction of cluster munitions.”[1]

Vietnam has stated its full support for the humanitarian aims of the Convention on Cluster Munitions on several occasions, but it regularly expressed the same concerns with respect to joining it, specifically its ability to meet the convention’s clearance obligation and the lack of participation in the convention by certain states.[2]

In 2010, senior officials informed the CMC that an interministerial policy review process was studying a number of issues relating to the convention.[3] As of 1 July 2013, it was not clear if this review was ongoing or had been completed.

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 only as an observer.[4]

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 has participated as an observer in every Meeting of States Parties of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012. Vietnam has participated in every intersessional meeting of the convention held in Geneva, including those held in April 2013.

Vietnam is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Vietnam signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons in 1981, but has not ratified any of its protocols.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

At the Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2012, Vietnam declared, “We do not produce, store, use or encourage to [sic] use cluster munitions.”[5]

In the past, some officials have said that Vietnam does not have a stockpile, but others have been less than certain.[6] A May 2010 position paper states that “foreign reports” show that Vietnam has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[7]

Jane’s Information Group cites Vietnam’s Air Force as possessing KMGU submunition dispensers.[8]

 



[1] Statement of Vietnam, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012, www.clusterconvention.org/files/2012/09/GEV-Vietnam.pdf.

[2] In December 2011, Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs 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.” He also stated 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.” Statement by Le Luong Minh, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the workshop on Joint Efforts in Mitigating the Consequences of Bomb and Mine Remnants of War, Hanoi, 5 December 2011.

[3] 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.

[4] 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.

[5] Statement of Vietnam, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012, www.clusterconvention.org/files/2012/09/GEV-Vietnam.pdf.

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

[7] “Vietnam’s Position on Cluster Munition Convention,” undated, provided to Aotearoa New Zealand Cluster Munition Coalition on 26 May 2010.

[8] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 848.