Ulaanbaatar, July 9 (IANS) US President Donald Trump does not appear to rule out the possibility of having US military ships he asked South Korea to build constructed in the Northeast Asian country, a presidential official said on Thursday.
The presidential official made the remarks at a press conference in Ulaanbaatar, where he was accompanying President Lee Jae Myung on a three-day state visit to Mongolia, in response to a reporter’s question about Trump’s recent request that South Korea build military vessels.
Trump requested Lee during their encounter at the recent Group of Seven summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, last month. The issue came up again when the two leaders met again at a dinner of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit in Ankara earlier this week.
“I have the impression that (Trump) does not rule out the possibility of having (them) built in South Korea,” the presidential official said on condition of anonymity, Yonhap news agency reported.
The official, however, said it remains unclear exactly how Trump wants the ships to be built, adding that working-level discussions would be needed to flesh out the details.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s major shipbuilders are turning their attention to the US naval market as Washington shows growing interest in their naval shipbuilding capabilities, raising expectations that Seoul’s Make American Shipbuilding Great Again (MASGA) initiative could gain momentum.
The shift comes as Trump has repeatedly emphasised rebuilding America’s shipbuilding industry while seeking trusted allies capable of supplementing domestic capacity, with Washington taking steps to assess Korean shipbuilders’ capabilities.
The Pentagon and the US Navy recently sent requests for information (RFIs) to South Korean companies on their ability to design and build destroyers, while a separate request was sent covering medium-sized fleet replenishment ships, according to industry sources.
It marks the first such request since last year’s bilateral agreement to allocate USD 150 billion for shipbuilding cooperation under the MASGA proposal as part of South Korea’s broader USD 350 billion investment package in the US.
The development was revealed just days after South Korea failed to secure Canada’s submarine replacement program to build up to 12 submarines, valued at up to 60 trillion won (USD 39.87 billion), including maintenance and repair.
–IANS
ksk/dan
