Indonesia yet to notify Korea of payment plan for joint fighter program

Indonesia has yet to provide South Korea with a timetable for payment on a joint fighter jet program as promised, undermining trust in Jakarta’s commitment to developing an advanced multirole warplane for the air forces of the two nations.

The Southeast Asian country did not keep its pledge to inform its partner country of a payment schedule by end-June as promised. It has been overdue for its contributions to the joint development of the KF-21 fighter jet, according to South Korea’s state arms procurement agency on Sunday.

Indonesia agreed to shoulder some 1.7 trillion won ($1.3 billion), 20% of the project’s total costs of 8.8 trillion won with Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. (KAI), the manufacturer of the warplane, in 2016 to receive a prototype and technical support for the production of 48 units in the Southeast Asian country.

Under the contract, Jakarta was already meant to have made payments of more than 1.1 trillion won but the government has so far settled only 280 billion won, said South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) officials.

COLLAPSING TRUST

In May, Minister of DAPA Eom Dongwhan said Indonesia vowed to notify Seoul of its payment plan for the remaining amount owed by the end of June. Senior DAPA officials including No Ji-Man, who leads the country’s homegrown fighter development project, visited Indonesia on May 10-13 to urge that payments be made in a timely manner.

Indonesia has repeatedly pledged to fulfill its commitment. When asked what the country would do if South Korea demanded that they unveil a payment schedule, Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto on June 26 told reporters that the government would make good on its promise. 

Trust in the project between South Korea and Indonesia has significantly weakened, however, as the government also signed separate deals to buy fighter jets from France and Qatar.

South Korea is set to step up pressure on Indonesia for payment, a DAPA official said.

“Indonesia does not seem to be giving up on the project as its pilots and technicians are still in South Korea for training,” the official said. “We will make stronger requests for payment.”

Write to Dong-Hyun Kim at 3code@hankyung.com
 

Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.