Big steps in defence production: India signs MoU with RoK

In a major development in these days of geo-political tension and global uncertainties, India and the Republic of Korea (RoK) on Friday signed an Inter-governmental Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for defence cooperation in shipbuilding industry.
 
A MoU was signed by the Secretary of defence production for Government of India,  Ashok Kumar Gupta and Minister of Defence Acquisition and Programme Administration (DAPA), Chang Myoung-Jin representing RoK. According to government sources, the MoU will certainly boost the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

The Inter-Governmental MoU was executed following the idea of the ‘Special Strategic Partnership’ between both sides as declared in the Joint Statement of the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and the President of RoK during May 2015. 

To substantiate the ‘Special Strategic Partnership’, the two sides had inter-alia agreed to encourage greater co-operation between their shipyards in the defence sector, according to a source in the government. It was decided earlier to sign a MoU on ‘Defence Industry Cooperation in Shipbuilding’. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has earlier approved the decision to sign the said MoU with RoK and also for nominating Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL), Visakhapatnam from the Indian side for the collaboration.