Biden in Britain Amid Cluster Bomb Controversy

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

LONDON (Worthy News) – U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Britain on Sunday amid controversy over his plan to send cluster bombs to Ukraine.

Biden’s meeting with the British government came ahead of his next stop at the NATO military alliance summit in Lithuania, which was due to be overshadowed by his cluster call.

Britain, Spain, and Canada are among NATO allies voicing concerns about supplying the bombs, which are widely banned amid the danger they pose to civilians.

Biden was to discuss these and other issues, including the war in Ukraine when he meets his British counterpart Rishi Sunak on Monday. Britain and Spain, by contrast, are among the nations that signed the convention.

Sunak said Saturday that Britain was one of 123 countries that signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty that bans the production or use of the weapons.

“We will continue to do our part to support Ukraine against Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion. But we’ve done that by providing heavy battle tanks and, most recently, long-range weapons, and hopefully, all countries can continue to support Ukraine,” he added.

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles reflected on those comments. “Spain, based on the firm commitment it has with Ukraine, also has a firm commitment that certain weapons and bombs cannot be delivered under any circumstances,” Robles told reporters during a rally in Madrid ahead of the July 23 national election. “No, to cluster bombs and yes, to the legitimate defense of Ukraine, which we understand should not be carried out with cluster bombs.”

CLUSTER BOMBS

The issue of cluster bombs was to test NATO solidarity during the upcoming summit. Over two-thirds of alliance members have banned the weapon because it has a track record for causing many civilian casualties.

Yet, the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia are not among the more than 120 countries supporting the 15-year-old Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) prohibiting all use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions out of humanitarian concern.

Reacting to the U.S. announcement, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said the weapons would not be used in civilian areas and would monitor and report on their use.

He added that the use of cluster bombs would only be “for the de-occupation of our internationally recognized territories.”

But Russia dismissed these assurances as “not worth anything.” “It is important to note that the Russian Federation has been indiscriminately using cluster munitions from day 1 of the unprovoked large-scale aggression. In February-March 2022, Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city with over a million population, was relentlessly bombarded by Russian cluster munitions,” Reznikov wrote.

“Our position is simple – we need to liberate our temporarily occupied territories and save the lives of our people. For this, we need to inflict losses on the enemy – war criminals, rapists, and looters – who are occupying our territories. The more losses we inflict on them, the more lives of Ukrainian people we will be able to save.”

The United States has said its cluster bombs fail less frequently than Russia used in the Ukraine war.

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