diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/network/junos/junos_config.py b/lib/ansible/modules/network/junos/junos_config.py
index 894d849875bbf5..c04ac5c6ee18ca 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/network/junos/junos_config.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/network/junos/junos_config.py
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@
 from ansible.module_utils.network.junos.junos import commit_configuration, discard_changes, locked_config
 from ansible.module_utils.network.junos.junos import junos_argument_spec, load_configuration, get_connection, tostring
 from ansible.module_utils.six import string_types
-from ansible.module_utils._text import to_native
+from ansible.module_utils._text import to_native, to_text
 
 try:
     from lxml.etree import Element, fromstring
@@ -362,10 +362,11 @@ def main():
                             'comment': module.params['comment']
                         }
 
-                        if module.params['confirm'] > 0:
+                        confirm = module.params['confirm']
+                        if confirm > 0:
                             kwargs.update({
                                 'confirm': True,
-                                'confirm_timeout': module.params['confirm']
+                                'confirm_timeout': to_text(confirm, errors='surrogate_then_replace')
                             })
                         commit_configuration(module, **kwargs)
                     else:
diff --git a/test/units/modules/network/junos/test_junos_config.py b/test/units/modules/network/junos/test_junos_config.py
index 7d1a751d8fbd0b..d42dcacccea8b6 100644
--- a/test/units/modules/network/junos/test_junos_config.py
+++ b/test/units/modules/network/junos/test_junos_config.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 from ansible.compat.tests.mock import patch
 from ansible.modules.network.junos import junos_config
 from units.modules.utils import set_module_args
+from ansible.module_utils._text import to_text
 from .junos_module import TestJunosModule, load_fixture
 
 
@@ -118,7 +119,7 @@ def test_junos_config_confirm(self):
         set_module_args(dict(src=src, confirm=40))
         self.execute_module(changed=True)
         args, kwargs = self.commit_configuration.call_args
-        self.assertEqual(kwargs['confirm_timeout'], 40)
+        self.assertEqual(kwargs['confirm_timeout'], to_text(40))
 
     def test_junos_config_rollback(self):
         rollback = 10