Lithuania’s parliament backs pullout from Convention on Cluster Munitions

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VILNIUS (Reuters) – Lithuania’s parliament on Thursday voted in favour of withdrawing from the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the production, stockpiling, use and transfer of the weapons.

The government of the Baltic country that borders Russia, which has not signed the convention, has said that continued membership limited its defence and made deterrence less effective.

Cluster munitions, which are prohibited by more than 100 countries, typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Russia, Ukraine and the United States have not signed the Convention.

Most European Union members are signatories, but among those that border Russia or Ukraine only Lithuania has signed it.

The Lithuanian parliament’s website showed 103 out of 141 had voted in support of the motion.

“Conventions are important when all countries adhere to them,” Defence Minister Laurynas Kasciunas told the parliament before the vote.

“The problem is, Russia, in its aggression against Ukraine, is not adhering,” he added. “It would be a mistake for a country, which is preparing to defend itself, to state which abilities it would not use… With this vote, we are making defence of Lithuania stronger”.

Ukraine last year received first shipments of cluster munitions from the United States despite protests of human rights organisations.