Seoul pushes for defence upgrade

AVERAGE INDIAN

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New Delhi, Jan. 13: South Korea wants to elevate its defence partnership with India through a new pact, Seoul has told New Delhi ahead of a visit this Wednesday by President Park Geun-hye that Tokyo and Beijing will closely follow.

But a key difference in defence policy aims between the nations may prevent an early breakthrough on the agreement that could upgrade South Korea's status as an Indian strategic partner to just a notch below that of Russia and Israel, senior government officials said.

India and South Korea had inked two pacts in 2010 to facilitate bilateral visits of top military commanders and to pursue joint defence research.

But Seoul, increasingly threatened by muscular postures adopted by China and Japan in recent months, is keen to sign a new "defence security agreement" with India, a South Korean diplomat confirmed.

The proposal from South Korea has presented India an opportunity to build on its strategic relations with key Asia-Pacific nations that has emerged a key theatre of global geo-strategic forays since the US announced its "pivot" to the region in June 2012.

The pact, officials said, could pave the way for the purchase of lethal weapons and vessels that South Korea has traditionally been reticent to sell to India.

But the pact proposed by the South Koreans is limited by its focus on India as a buyer, rather than collaborative research and investments in India's defence sector, the officials said.

"We want them to invest in India, including in the defence sector, and to partner us in joint research, not just sell us stuff — and that will be a key thrust of our talks during President Park's visit," an official said.

New Delhi will also try to persuade Seoul to nudge its electronics giants to invest along the Bangalore Mysore Industrial Corridor (BMIC), fast shaping up as one of India's key manufacturing highways, during Park's visit, the officials said. Park will travel to Bangalore after delegation-level talks in New Delhi.

India will cite the environment ministry's recent five-year clearance to Posco's Odisha plant as an example of its intent to facilitate similar South Korean investments, the officials said. "We're counting on South Korean investments to develop eight major towns along the BMIC," another official said.

President Pranab Mukherjee will host a luncheon banquet for Park on Thursday, and the South Korean leader — the first woman President of her country — will also meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vice-President Hamid Ansari and foreign minister Salman Khurshid that day.

Like many other countries in East and Southeast Asia, South Korea views India as a counterbalance to the rising tensions in its neighbourhood as China and Japan joust for military and strategic superiority.

But unlike many of these nations like Vietnam and the Philippines, South Korea's concerns are not restricted to China's assertiveness over territories Beijing hasn't held for several decades.

Seoul does have territorial disputes with China, but it also holds deep-seated distrust for Tokyo because of alleged war crimes committed against Koreans by the Japanese during the Second World War.

Shinzo Abe, Japan's Prime Minister who has demonstratively visited controversial war shrines and is expected in India as the chief guest for Republic Day celebrations later this month, has upset the South Koreans as much as he has irked the Chinese.

"The recognition in the region that India can play a key role in ensuring peace, security and stability in the region is a major achievement for us," an official said. "But there's a lot more to do and President Park's visit is a key step in that direction."

Seoul pushes for defence upgrade
 

Free Karma

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Hmm, so what stuff does Korea have that we might be interested in? Will they give ToT?

Everybody wants to sell to us, we really need to start building stuff on our own :/
 

AVERAGE INDIAN

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Hmm, so what stuff does Korea have that we might be interested in? Will they give ToT?

Everybody wants to sell to us, we really need to start building stuff on our own :/
The Dokdo-class is a class of Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH) amphibious assault ships TOT
 

Kunal Biswas

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Joint research ? What they have to offer us ?
 

sob

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They are willing to set up Nuclear Power plant and also they have indicated joint research in this field, especially for accelerators.

They have a few interesting things to offer- minus the baggage that the Americans carry.
 

bhramos

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NK+ Pa Relations = SK + India Relations..

can we sign any back door deals with seoul ?
 

Free Karma

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They are willing to set up Nuclear Power plant and also they have indicated joint research in this field, especially for accelerators.

They have a few interesting things to offer- minus the baggage that the Americans carry.
We need to be a little careful with the nuke deals, there were a few big scams unearthed related to parts from Korea, where safety precautions were not taken, or just waived off, substandard parts were used in critical components in more than half of the plants in SK, testing data was faked/doctored and a lot more,even emergency equipment tests were faked. Quite scary.

scandal in south korea over nuclear revelations
 
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Twinblade

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NK+ Pa Relations = SK + India Relations..

can we sign any back door deals with seoul ?
The South Koreans sell plenty of stuff to Pakistanis. Pakistani artillery has a lot to thank to the South Koreans.

Joint research ? What they have to offer us ?
Plenty. Their shipbuilding industry is best in the world. They currently modify American designs to their needs, like the Japanese, but there is nothing stopping them from taking the lead in trying out new domestic naval designs. They have developed a whole array of land warfare systems which we currently lack. They have followed the same model of developing defence industry but with a greater success rate. Take out the strategic Indian weapons and you will find a South Korean analogue already in service, mostly within the last decade or so. There can be no better partner as far as future development is concerned. We have an advantage in developing Indigenous sub systems, they have one of the world's largest electronics design and production facilities. Since their civilian industry is so far ahead, whatever systems they chose to develop, they do it successfully. The gap between the countries is very small and the direction in which they are headed is the same. Overall we are ahead as far as missiles and standoff weapons are concerned. They are ahead as far as the indegenisation is concerned.
 

arnabmit

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Joint research ? What they have to offer us ?
SOKO is the world leader in electronics, plus their manufacturing processes are one of the best in the world.

How man other countries could come up with something like this?
[video=youtube_share;xZ7FKuYPsQ0]http://youtu.be/xZ7FKuYPsQ0[/video]
 

Yusuf

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Joint research ? What they have to offer us ?
Navy comes to mind. SoKo has good shipbuilding industry & I think the too 1 or 2 in the world in terms of commercial ship building.

They have a good manufacturing base and is a leader in electronics. We could collaborate on many things. SoKo is just like Japan as far as industry & capability go. Japan a little better than SoKo.
 

p2prada

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We can sell Kaveri engines for their KF-X fighter program.
 

TrueSpirit1

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We have an advantage in developing Indigenous sub systems, they have one of the world's largest electronics design and production facilities.
Korea's electronics lead is mostly in consumer electronics & what goes in white-goods.

Exclude the above, & they lag behind France, Germany, Sweden & Israel (and obviously, US) in military-grade semiconductor industry.
 

Twinblade

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Korea's electronics lead is mostly in consumer electronics & what goes in white-goods.

Exclude the above, & they lag behind France, Germany, Sweden & Israel (and obviously, US) in military-grade semiconductor industry.
They have two competing designs for FA-50 AESA, one from Samsung-Thales, the other from LIG. LIG's AESA is already under testing. That tells you how much have they caught up.
 

Sakal Gharelu Ustad

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Are there strategic benefits of this relationship with SK as far as China is concerned?
 

Blackwater

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Twinblade;840908[B said:
]The South Koreans sell plenty of stuff to Pakistanis. Pakistani artillery has a lot to thank to the South Koreans.[/B]



Plenty. Their shipbuilding industry is best in the world. They currently modify American designs to their needs, like the Japanese, but there is nothing stopping them from taking the lead in trying out new domestic naval designs. They have developed a whole array of land warfare systems which we currently lack. They have followed the same model of developing defence industry but with a greater success rate. Take out the strategic Indian weapons and you will find a South Korean analogue already in service, mostly within the last decade or so. There can be no better partner as far as future development is concerned. We have an advantage in developing Indigenous sub systems, they have one of the world's largest electronics design and production facilities. Since their civilian industry is so far ahead, whatever systems they chose to develop, they do it successfully. The gap between the countries is very small and the direction in which they are headed is the same. Overall we are ahead as far as missiles and standoff weapons are concerned. They are ahead as far as the indegenisation is concerned.

free me,how did pakis pay????
 

Kunal Biswas

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@Twinblade, I am afraid you are overestimating them, SK military Industry heavily rely on American inputs specially Military Grade electronics which are license made in SK, And almost every system use them or imported from US ..

SK array of system are successful as there Gov is backing it with funds and infrastructure and has American technology backing too, Unlike ours which is suffering coz of corrupt Gov more towards imports, SK array of hardware are same as ours just ours are not inducted and limited till prototypes but again our system are more Indian than SK`s southkorean component in it ..

=================
@Yusuf, True so does @Twinblade`s comment about there ship building, We can make plenty of P-17A/B class frigates back there ..

=================
@debasree, We can make our own tankers in fact we did before, Mine sweeepers too, We just lack dockyards which SK can provide, It always better to have you own talior made design hardware for your specific use, As about the K-9, Its a good SPGH but rather prefer Bhim SPGH ..


Plenty. Their shipbuilding industry is best in the world. They currently modify American designs to their needs, like the Japanese, but there is nothing stopping them from taking the lead in trying out new domestic naval designs. They have developed a whole array of land warfare systems which we currently lack. They have followed the same model of developing defence industry but with a greater success rate. Take out the strategic Indian weapons and you will find a South Korean analogue already in service, mostly within the last decade or so. There can be no better partner as far as future development is concerned. We have an advantage in developing Indigenous sub systems, they have one of the world's largest electronics design and production facilities. Since their civilian industry is so far ahead, whatever systems they chose to develop, they do it successfully. The gap between the countries is very small and the direction in which they are headed is the same. Overall we are ahead as far as missiles and standoff weapons are concerned. They are ahead as far as the indegenisation is concerned.
They have two competing designs for FA-50 AESA, one from Samsung-Thales, the other from LIG. LIG's AESA is already under testing. That tells you how much have they caught up.
Navy comes to mind. SoKo has good shipbuilding industry & I think the too 1 or 2 in the world in terms of commercial ship building.

They have a good manufacturing base and is a leader in electronics. We could collaborate on many things. SoKo is just like Japan as far as industry & capability go. Japan a little better than SoKo.
k-9 thunder....mine sweepers..tankers..
 
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