Lithuania to quit convention banning cluster munitions

Vilnius: Lithuania's parliament voted on Thursday that the country will withdraw from an international treaty banning cluster munitions, local media reported.

In total, 103 members of the parliament voted in favour of abandoning the Convention on Cluster Munitions, with one against and three abstentions, according to Lithuanian Radio and Television.

The Baltic country's authorities argue that the international legal restrictions limit the defence capabilities and combat power of Lithuania and its allies operating on its territory as well as reduce the effectiveness of deterrence.

"It would be very wrong for a country, when preparing for its defence, to immediately say what capacity it would not use for its defence," Defence Minister Laurynas Kasciunas told the parliament on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Now, we can neither buy cluster munitions, nor can we train, nor can we even allow the transfer to allies who have not ratified this convention," said the minister.

Lithuania's plan to withdraw from the convention drew criticism from the Cluster Munition Coalition, an international campaign seeking to eliminate cluster bombs.

Concerns have also been raised by the US-based organisation Human Rights Watch as well as the Mines Advisory Group, a Britain-based humanitarian group that finds and removes mines, cluster munitions and unexploded ordnance.

Lithuania ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2011.

Withdrawal from the agreement will allow Lithuania to acquire cluster munitions from its allies.

The UN-backed convention ratified by more than 100 countries came into force in 2010. It prohibits the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions, a type of explosive weapon which scatters submunition over an area.