The supply of cluster munitions to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, despite the lack of support from many countries, will not lead to a split in NATO. This was announced on Tuesday, July 11, by the US President's national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
"Neither the British Prime Minister (Rishi Sunak) nor any of the leaders of NATO countries have said that this threatens the unity of NATO… There is a broad measure of understanding why the United States made this decision," he said at a press conference in Vilnius, broadcast on the White House YouTube channel.
The United States approved the shipment of cluster munitions as assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) on July 7.
As it became known on July 10, the European Commission is not against the supply of cluster munitions to Ukraine for self-defense, which the United States intends to allocate. Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning noted that humanitarian problems may arise in the conflict zone as a result of the US sending cluster munitions to Ukraine. According to the diplomat, the parties should not add fuel to the fire.
Before that, on July 9, it turned out that the authorities of several countries within NATO criticized the US decision. This was opposed by Sunak, his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni and the head of the Spanish Defense Ministry Margarita Robles.
US representatives also disagree on the supply of cluster munitions to Ukraine. So, on July 8, a member of the House of Representatives from the Democratic Party, Betty McCollum, called on Washington to eliminate the remnants of cluster munitions, and not transfer them to Kiev.
The use of cluster munitions is prohibited by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which entered into force on August 1, 2010, 123 countries have signed it, but only 110 have ratified it. Of the European countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Greece, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, Finland and Estonia have not signed the convention.
