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Around the world: RI hopes to secure renegotiated KFX deal
The government hopes that current talks to renegotiate an ongoing joint jet fighter development project with South Korea will be reached, the nation’s chief security minister said during an official visit to Seoul
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span>The government hopes that current talks to renegotiate an ongoing joint jet fighter development project with South Korea will be reached, the nation’s chief security minister said during an official visit to Seoul.
Coordinating Political, Security and Legal Affairs Minister Wiranto met with South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo for high-level talks on Wednesday, hoping to settle renegotiations for the development of the Korean Fighter Xperiment/Indonesia Fighter Xperiment (KFX/IFX), a project that would be funded by the state budgets of the two countries.
South Korea had agreed to renegotiations during President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo visit to the country in 2018, but required them to be completed within a year.
Indonesia had sought renegotiations because according to the previous provisions, Jakarta would have had to spend hundreds of trillions of rupiah on the project. Indonesia has spent US$10 million on the research stage of the project since 2016.
Wiranto’s visit comes just a month before the presidential election, with Jokowi running a campaign heavily focused on infrastructure spending.
The minister positioned the project as being “vital for [...] national security” and an opportunity to enhance human resources based on Indonesia’s Industry 4.0 roadmap, despite acknowledging that the government was currently focused on developing physical infrastructure.
“[We] hope the co-development of the KF-X/IF-X currently underway in Seoul will reach an agreement that brings a positive effect [to] the national aerospace industry,” Wiranto said in a statement delivered on Wednesday.
