South Korea seeks to arm Saudi Arabia amid bid to overtake China as fourth-largest defence exporter
South Korea aims to tap Saudi Arabia as a potential key buyer for its weapons, as part of an ambitious target to overtake China as the world's fourth-largest defence exporter.
The Middle East country is an attractive market for weapons exporters as it is seeking foreign help to build its own defence industry, analysts said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol met Saudi Arabia's Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman Al Saud and Minister of National Guard Abdullah bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in Riyadh on Monday to discuss ways to strengthen defence ties, Yoon's office said on Tuesday. Yoon was on a four-day state visit to Saudi Arabia until Tuesday.
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Khalid said the two countries' defence industry cooperation was "close to producing results" and would serve as a new milestone in their partnership, according to the Yonhap news agency.
He also expressed hope that such cooperation would advance to the next generation and proposed a comprehensive partnership that includes technological collaboration and joint production.
In response, Yoon said South Korea hoped to contribute to the success of Saudi Arabia's defence reforms and called for the deepening of ties to include defence training, joint exercises, visits to military bases and people-to-people exchanges.
South Korea has ranked as the world's ninth-largest defence exporter in recent years. Yoon's government is aiming to propel the country past China to become one of the world's top four defence exporters after the United States, Russia and France by the end of 2027.
The country is looking to sell more weapons to Saudi Arabia as part of the next stage of its "Blue Ocean" strategy in bilateral trade, said Kim Tae-hyo, Yoon's top presidential security adviser, who accompanied the South Korean leader in Saudi Arabia. The involvement of Korean companies in Saudi Arabia's construction boom in the 1970s and 1980s helped accelerate South Korea's economic expansion over the period.
The strategy refers to efforts by a country or a company to capture an untapped market with few or no competitors.
"Large-scale defence industry cooperation discussions are in the final stage, in various areas such as anti-aircraft defence systems and firearms," Kim was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency on Sunday.
Both countries are discussing defence industry cooperation programmes with a long-term horizon, said Kim, hinting that their defence cooperation could include weapons supply, maintenance, and training.
"We intend to cooperate so that our weapons systems using our excellent defence industry technologies can help strengthen Saudi Arabia's defence capabilities, and this will serve as a strong force for further expanding our achievements in defence exports," he said.
Yoon's officials are hopeful that Saudi Arabia would serve as a "springboard" for South Korea's defence industry to expand its presence in the Middle East. South Korea has set a goal of US$20 billion in defence exports this year after it sold a record US$17.3 billion of arms last year, including the supply of tanks, howitzers, warplanes and rockets to Poland amid the ongoing war in neighbouring Ukraine.
"We will work together to ensure that our top-notch weapon systems help bolster Saudi Arabia's defence capabilities, which will serve as a strong catalyst for expanding our defence exports," Kim said.
The presidential office declined to comment on the types of weapons that could be exported to Saudi Arabia. "The Saudis are sensitive because if they mention specific weapon systems and quantities, neighbouring countries could guess," said a senior official, who did not want to be named.
Besides buying weapons, Saudi Arabia also wants to spend its vast oil dollars on the transfer of defence technology from foreign partners in a bid to build its defence industry, analysts said.
This is an area where South Korea has an advantage over other weapon suppliers. "South Korea is one of the countries that are most open to defence technology cooperation with foreign partners," Yang Uk, a senior researcher at Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told This Week in Asia.
One such technology that Saudi Arabia is keen on acquiring is the updated version of South Korea's aerial and missile defence system known as Cheongung II, Yang said. The system could be useful for deployment by the kingdom against the threat of ballistic missiles and drone attacks by Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen, he added.
When Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman visited Seoul last year, he reportedly showed great interest in the system, dubbed as the Korean version of the American Patriot missiles. South Korea sealed a US$3.5 billion deal to export the system to the United Arab Emirates last year.
Saudi Arabia also needs to replace its ageing infantry-based weapons including tanks, armoured vehicles, self-propelled guns and artillery pieces, which can be supplied by South Korea, said Lee Il-woo, a senior researcher at the think tank Korea Defence Network.
But Lee warned that China's defence industry is also eyeing the lucrative Saudi Arabian market.
"It's hard to say Saudi Arabia is a Blue Ocean for weapons exports, as there are already tough competitors swarming there, including European and Chinese suppliers. It's rather Red Ocean [competition] for South Korea," Lee said.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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