Korea-India joint researches on the field of national defense initiated

The Korea-India Coop­er­a­tive Defense Research and Devel­op­ment Com­mit­tee co-host­ed by the Korea Defense Acqui­si­tion Pro­gram Admin­is­tra­tion (KDAPA) and India’s Defense Research and Devel­op­ment Orga­ni­za­tion (DRDO) was held on Feb. 27–29. “The com­mit­tee is the first con­fer­ence for the two sides to advance togeth­er their defense sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy, said the KDAPA.

This con­fer­ence led by the DAPA and DRDO, which are respon­si­ble for their country’s defense research and devel­op­ment, dealt with the agen­das such as a joint devel­op­ment projects and pend­ing issues about tech­nol­o­gy cooperation. 

Dur­ing its stay in Korea, Dr. Sel­va­murthy-led Indi­an del­e­ga­tion vis­it­ed the Korea Agency for Defense Devel­op­ment (ADD), a core think tank for Kore­an-designed weapons devel­op­ment, and sev­er­al major Kore­an defense indus­tries includ­ing Sam­sung Techwin. 

The bilat­er­al coop­er­a­tion com­mit­tee held on the basis of the MOU on the S. Korea-India Defense Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy Coop­er­a­tion that was signed in Sep­tem­ber 2010 was con­sid­ered more sub­stan­tial and for­mal than ever before. 

India’s defense sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy has been high­ly regard­ed in the areas of aero­space, infor­ma­tion and tech­nol­o­gy, and soft­ware, all based on advanced fun­da­men­tal skills. Because it has a lot of sup­ple­men­ta­tion with that of Korea, experts judge, it is high­ly prob­a­ble for the two coun­tries to gen­er­ate a sig­nif­i­cant syn­er­gy effect on the defense sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy development. 

“We will take this coop­er­a­tion com­mit­tee as a good oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tin­ue doing S. Korea-India joint research and devel­op­ment,” a DAPA offi­cial said, “fur­ther­more, through such a suc­cess­ful col­lab­o­ra­tion of the two sides on defence tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment, we are expect­ed to cut the research and devel­op­ment bud­get, short­en the devel­op­ment dura­tion, and, by so doing, fur­ther pro­mote the export of mil­i­tary sup­plies by co-pro­duc­ing them and cre­at­ing new mar­kets. As a result, the com­mit­tee is antic­i­pat­ed to play a role as the hub of the joint research and devel­op­ment in the Asian region.” 

Dur­ing the last Cold War, India stuck to a non­align­ment pol­i­cy, so there was no close rela­tions between the two. How­ev­er, since 2000, the rela­tions had been grad­u­al­ly devel­oped. This devel­oped rela­tions have been more advanced since Jan­u­ary 2010 when S. Kore­an Pres­i­dent Lee Myeong-bak vis­it­ed India. Dur­ing his vis­it, the two coun­tries agreed to build a strate­gic part­ner­ship, result­ing in being led to a full range of mutu­al relations. 

Also, “India seems to has been increas­ing in exer­cis­ing the polit­i­cal influ­ence in the inter­na­tion­al soci­ety,” for­eign affairs and secu­ri­ty experts diag­nose, “in that sense, this coop­er­a­tion com­mit­tee pro­vid­ed us with the clear­ly vis­i­ble con­sol­i­da­tion of the defense coop­er­a­tion of the two countries.” 

Source:
Min­istry of Nation­al Defense[MND], Repub­lic of Korea