Assess how defence-industrial cooperation with partners like South Korea can advance Aatmanirbhar Bharat in defence.

Aatmanirbhar Bharat in defence means building and maintaining weapons in India, not only buying finished imports. India and the Republic of Korea upgraded their ties to a Special Strategic Partnership in 2015 and signed a Roadmap for Defence Industries Cooperation in 2020 [1]. Korea is a partner with proven skill in weapons and shipbuilding, but cooperation has advanced self-reliance only partly so far.

How cooperation advances self-reliance

• Co-production in India: Hanwha Aerospace and L&T signed a contract for 100 more K9 Vajra guns in April 2025, so these guns are built by an Indian firm in India [1].
• Firm-level joint ventures: joint-venture MoUs were signed at Aero India 2025 and at the Defence Industry Round Table in Seoul (May 2026) [1].
• A standing official forum: the 10th Joint Committee Meeting on Defence Industries and Logistics Cooperation (Sep 2026) brought Hanwha and KAI together with L&T and BEML [2].
• Shipbuilding skills: the CCS-approved 2017 MoU named Hindustan Shipyard Limited as India's partner for defence shipbuilding [3]. Under VOYAGES (2026), HD KSOE will help build a 2.5 million GT greenfield yard at Thoothukudi [4].

Limits of the cooperation

• No warship yet: the 2017 shipbuilding MoU has produced no reported naval vessel [3].
• Commercial focus: VOYAGES builds merchant-ship capacity, not naval capacity [4].
• Narrow base: the clearest success, K9 Vajra, is a land system. The firms in the Joint Committee work mainly on land and aerospace systems [2].
• Economic imbalance: in 2024–25 India imported about USD 21 bn from Korea and exported about USD 5.8 bn [5]. A widening deficit makes the partnership harder to defend politically at home.

Way forward

• Add naval maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and spares to the Joint Committee agenda [2].
• Give the HSL MoU a concrete project, or close it [3].
• Plan the Thoothukudi yard so it can also build naval auxiliary ships [4].
• Use the CEPA upgrade talks to improve market access for Indian goods [5].

Korean partnership has already helped India build some weapons at home, as K9 Vajra shows. Its maritime promise, however, is still on paper. If the two governments link the industrial track to naval needs, cooperation can move from licensed assembly to shared design. This would advance Aatmanirbhar Bharat and support the Indo-Pacific vision both countries share.