Lithuania to become first EU nation to exit cluster munitions treaty
A Rafale B standard F4 fighter jet of France's air force drives to its parking place as part of NATO's Enhanced Air Policing (eAP) mission in the Baltic States in Lithuania, on Dec. 17, 2024. (AFP Photo)
Lithuania will become the first European Union nation to formally withdraw from an international arms regulation agreement when it exits the Convention on Cluster Munitions on March 6.
The Baltic nation’s decision represents a rare departure from multilateral arms treaties. According to analysis of United Nations disarmament registry data, only five formal withdrawals from such agreements have occurred since the U.N.’s establishment 80 years ago, with three of those—all by Russia—taking place since 2021.
Lithuania, which signed and ratified the cluster munitions ban in 2011, cited “the evolving regional security dynamics and geopolitical threats” in its September 2024 announcement of the planned withdrawal.
The government stated that “the current security environment necessitates maintaining a full spectrum of defensive tools, including cluster munitions, to ensure national security and protect our citizens.”
Cluster munitions disperse bomblets over wide areas when deployed, effectively creating landmine-like hazards that can remain dangerous for years after conflicts end.
The Lithuanian withdrawal comes amid a broader context of increasing skepticism toward arms control agreements.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine—both of which have employed cluster munition in their ongoing conflict—are among the treaty’s 111 remaining signatories.
Other non-participants include the United States, Iran, Israel and the two Koreas.
Eastern nations abandon several arms control frameworks
Russia has recently abandoned several major international arms control frameworks, including its 2023 revocation of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and withdrawal from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.
In 2021, Moscow also exited the Open Skies Treaty, which the United States had abandoned a year earlier under then-President Donald Trump.
Bilateral arms control agreements have faced similar challenges. In 2002, the U.S. withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia. Both nations abandoned the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty in 2019, which had limited medium-range missile deployment since 1987.
The New START Treaty—the final remaining strategic arms control agreement between Russia and the United States—is set to expire in February 2026. Without renewal, no nuclear arms control structure would remain between the former Cold War adversaries for the first time since 1972.
North Korea declared its withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 2003, though it remains officially listed as a signatory because of procedural non-compliance with the treaty’s required three-month notice period.
