U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Commits to Reducing Collateral Damage from Cluster Bombs

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2008 -- U.S. officials share the concerns of some 100 countries that gathered in Norway today to sign a treaty banning cluster bombs, but the United States opted not to sign the treaty, a Pentagon spokesman said.

We are obviously concerned about unintended harm to civilians as a result of the whole range of munitions out there that are used in war, Bryan Whitman said. It is for that reason that we have taken a leading role in the negotiations on cluster munitions, but within the framework of the [United Nations] Convention on Conventional Weapons.

The CCW, he explained, includes all nations that produce cluster munitions, including China and Russia. Like the United States, these countries declined to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions agreement today in Oslo.

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