SEOUL (Reuters) – Indonesia has proposed to chop its share of funds for a joint fighter jet improvement undertaking with South Korea to about one-third of the initially agreed quantity, South Korean information company Yonhap reported on Monday.
Indonesia lately recommended to the South Korean authorities that it might pay about 600 billion received ($442.47 million) for the KF-21 joint fighter jet undertaking, Yonhap reported, citing a number of unnamed authorities sources.
The unique quantity due for Indonesia’s share of the joint fighter undertaking was set to be at about 1.6 trillion received by June 2026, the report stated.
“In an effort to efficiently full the event of the KF-21 system, the governments of each South Korea and Indonesia are conducting remaining negotiations to resolve the present price sharing points,” South Korea’s Protection Acquisition Program Administration stated in a press release to Reuters.
Indonesia’s defence ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The KF-21 fighter jet developed by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) in a undertaking partially backed by Indonesia is designed to be a less expensive, much less stealthy various to the U.S.-built F-35, on which South Korea depends.
Indonesia stated it might obtain fewer expertise transfers from South Korea as a part of its transfer to chop its monetary contribution, Yonhap reported.
South Korea and Indonesia resolved in 2022 a dispute over funding for the joint fighter jet undertaking price greater than 8 trillion received after Indonesia had halted cost of its 20% share of the event prices.
The Indonesian authorities’s newest proposal comes after South Korea police raided KAI’s head workplace in March in reference to two Indonesian nationals accused of leaking expertise associated to the KF-21 fighter jet undertaking.
($1 = 1,356.0200 received)
(Reporting by Heekyong Yang in Seoul and Stanley Widianto in Jakarta; Modifying by Jamie Freed)