India signed a logistic support agreement with South Korea on Friday, deepening its defence ties with Seoul. The two countries signed the agreement at a bilateral meeting between India's Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh and his South Korean counterpart Jeong Kyeongdoo.
"Two memoranda of understanding to further defence and educational exchanges and the extension of logistical support to each other’s navies were signed. These agreements will help enhance defence cooperation between India and the Republic of Korea," India's defence ministry stated, adding that the two ministers had exchanged views on regional and international developments of mutual interest.
The ministers noted that defence cooperation lies at the heart of the Special Strategic Partnership between the two countries.
The ministers exchanged views on regional and international developments of mutual interest. Two MoUs to further defence educational exchanges & extend logistical support to each other’s navies were signed. These agreements will help enhance defence cooperation between India-RoK pic.twitter.com/yCcpKvNrUD
— रक्षा मंत्री कार्यालय/ RMO India (@DefenceMinIndia) September 6, 2019
"They discussed the ongoing cooperation at the service-to-service level and prospects for enhanced cooperation between the Indian and Korean defence industries," the ministry added.
Since 2016, India has signed militarily logistics sharing agreements with the US, France, Oman, and Singapore.
On Thursday, India and Russia “agreed to prepare a framework for cooperation on reciprocal (military) logistics support” while “recognising the requirement of an institutional arrangement for the reciprocal provision of logistics support and services for the armed forces”.
Around 70% of equipment and platforms like warships, submarines, fighter jets and tanks being used by the Indian armed forces are of Russian origin, hence, it is expected that a logistics sharing agreement will provide immense help in the servicing of equipment at various locations in Russia.
Earlier this week, the Indian defence ministry also confirmed the decisive progress that had been made with Japan on similar agreements, and it is expected that the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) to enhance the strategic depth of bilateral security and defence cooperation between the two countries will be signed during the first Foreign and Defence Ministerial Dialogue (2+2) by end of this year.
The ACSA is a mutual logistics support agreement intended to allow the navies of the two countries to get access to each other's military bases.