How can defence-industrial partnerships with East Asian economies support India's goal of self-reliance in shipbuilding? Illustrate.

The Indian Navy has 61 warships under construction, 60 of them in Indian shipyards [1]. Building them on time is the hard part. East Asian shipbuilders, above all the Republic of Korea (ROK), have the speed, scale and production methods that India's yards lack. Well-designed partnerships can turn this into Indian capacity rather than more imports.

How partnerships help

• Technology and better project management: the 2017 India–ROK MoU on Defence Industry Cooperation in Shipbuilding nominated Hindustan Shipyard Ltd. It was meant to help the yard upgrade its facilities, build naval ships at lower cost and manage projects better [2].
• Local suppliers: the same MoU planned to source materials and equipment within India, which helps build a domestic supplier base [2].
• Capacity and scale: under the Cochin Shipyard–HD KSOE MoU (2025), Cochin Shipyard's 310 m dry dock will build Suezmax tankers and Capesize bulk carriers, up to six vessels a year. A block-fabrication facility worth about ₹3,700 crore is planned at Kochi [3].
• New shipyards: in April 2026, a tripartite MoU was signed for a 2.5 million GT greenfield shipyard at Thoothukudi with HD KSOE [4].
• Skilled workers: the Thoothukudi plan may train Indian workers at HD KSOE's yards in Korea and expects about 15,000 direct jobs [4].
• Institutional support: the Joint Strategic Vision 2026–30 revives the 2020 Roadmap to Defence Industry Cooperation and plans a Joint Committee on Defence Industry Cooperation. The K9-Vajra joint venture, now on its second production batch, shows that co-production works [5].
• Trust through naval diplomacy: INS Sahyadri, an indigenously designed and built stealth frigate, took part in the India–ROK naval exercise at Busan [6]. This builds the trust that sharing sensitive technology requires.

Gaps to close

• Visible results so far are mostly in commercial shipbuilding [3][4]. The naval track under the 2017 MoU still needs a concrete warship project [2].
• Modular block-building methods learnt in commercial yards should be applied to warship programmes.

Way forward

• Use the 2017 MoU's five-year automatic renewal to attach it to a specific naval build [2].
• Have the planned Joint Committee track warship work as well as artillery [5].
• Extend the model to other East Asian shipbuilding economies.

East Asian partnerships give India capital, know-how and skilled workers, which are what its shipyards lack. If they are tied to clear targets for Indian content and actual naval projects, they can help India build its own ships under Aatmanirbhar Bharat and meet the Navy's needs on time.