| <THE PHILIPPINES | AFGHANISTAN> |
Vanuatu’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, Vital Soksok, signed the Mine Ban Treaty in Ottawa, Canada on 4 December 1997, but Vanuatu has not yet ratified. Vanuatu did not participate in the treaty preparatory meetings or the formal negotiations, and it did not endorse the pro-treaty Brussels Declaration. Vanuatu voted in favour of the 1996 and 1997 UN General Assembly resolutions supporting the elimiation of antipersonnel landmines but was absent from the 1998 vote endorsing the ban treaty. Vanuatu is not believed to have ever produced, transferred, stockpiled or exported antipersonnel landmines and is not believed to be mine-affected although there are still major dumps of military equipment left over from World War Two.
