India and the Republic of Korea (RoK) signed an inter-governmental memorandum of understanding (MoU) for defence industry co-operation in shipbuilding in New Delhi on April 21, 2017. The MoU was signed by Secretary (Defence Production), Ashok Kumar Gupta and the Minister of Defence Acquisition and Programme Administration (DAPA), Chang Myoung-Jin from the RoK side. The MoU will help the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Government of India.

The MoU will come into effect from the date of signature by both sides and will be initially valid for a period of five years and would be automatically extendable for further successive five year at a time. The Inter-Governmental MoU, was conceived under the overall umbrella of the ‘Special Strategic Partnership’ between both sides as declared in the Joint Statement of the Prime Minister of India and the President of RoK in 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. Accordingly, it was decided to sign an inter-governmental MoU on ‘Defence Industry Co-operation in Shipbuilding’.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has accorded its approval for signing the above MoU with RoK and also for nominating Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL), Visakhapatnam from the Indian side for the collaboration. RoK will indicate the name of its recommended organisation for the collaboration in due course of time.