Yonhap news agency reported on March 24 that defense officials from South Korea and Indonesia reaffirmed cooperation in the joint development project of the KF-21 fighter jet.
Mr. Seok Jong Gun, head of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), and Mr. Donny Ermawan Taufanto, Deputy Minister of Defense of Indonesia, discussed this joint development project and other arms manufacturing cooperation contents during a meeting in Jakarta on March 21.
South Korean defense authorities last year agreed to lower Indonesia's contribution to the project to develop the advanced supersonic fighter jet by 2026 to 600 billion won ($409 million), from an initial 1.6 trillion won, after Jakarta repeatedly delayed payments.
Indonesia initially agreed to pay about 20 percent of the cost of the 8.1 trillion won program, which was launched in 2015, in exchange for South Korea transferring technology and a prototype, among other conditions.
The project has also been hampered by allegations of technology leaks involving a team of Indonesian engineers sent to South Korea.
According to DAPA, Deputy Minister Taufanto emphasized the competitiveness of Korean weapons equipment, such as KT-1 and T-50 aircraft, and affirmed that Indonesia is "faithfully" implementing contracts and maintaining cooperative relations in many fields./.
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