BELGIUM SIGNS CONVENTION ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRUSSELS 001828

SIPDIS

STATE FOR PM/WRA AND EUR/WE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/02/2018
TAGS: ENRG ETTC KNNP MNUC PARM TRGY BE
SUBJECT: BELGIUM SIGNS CONVENTION ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS

REF: STATE 125512

Classified By: Political-Economic Counselor Richard Eason, reason 1.4(b
) and (d).


1. (C) On December 2, Poloff delivered reftel information on
the United States position on the Convention on Cluster
Munitions to Werner Bauwens, Director of the MFA Office of
Non-Proliferation and Export Controls. Bauwens said that
Belgium will sign the CCM on December 3 in Oslo. According
to news reports, it did so at the Oslo meeting on December 3.
Bauwens showed Poloff the Belgian Foreign Minister's
intervention for the meeting, which he was drafting. He said
that Belgium's hope is to extend the list of signatories and
universalize the norms contained in the CCM. He said that
every positive step by non-signatory nations in the same
direction will be welcomed. Belgium does not want to cast
blame on those who do not sign, but wants to look for
dialogue, Bauwens said.


2. (C) Bauwens insisted that the negotiation and signature
of the CCM has had no actual negative effects on NATO, which
he believes is underscored by the lack of any escalation of
the issue to Ambassadorial level in NATO. Interoperability
will be no more affected, he said, than it was when the
convention prohibiting anti-personnel mines was signed by a
number of countries, including Belgium. He promised that if
ever any issue of interoperability with NATO arises, the GOB
and NATO will find a way to deal with it. He said that use
of cluster munitions by non-signatories is not a "Belgian
matter", and Belgium could accept their use during a joint
mission. For example, he said, if a Belgian contingent got
into trouble during a joint mission in Afghanistan, and U.S.
commanders decided that the best way to solve the problem was
for U.S. forces to use cluster munitions, Belgium would not
object.


3. (C) Belgium has already begun destroying its stockpiles
of deadly cluster munitions, and Bauwens estimates they will
be all gone by mid-2009. The Belgians will still keep
stockpiles of cluster munitions used for purposes such as
jamming radar, providing smoke cover and illumination.

FOX
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