Korea and Peru have made significant progress in the negotiations concerning trade of Korea’s KT-1 training aircraft, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala said Friday.

“With regards to defense industry cooperation, we are interested in pilot training and the negotiations with the Korean government have made significant progress,” Humala said on Friday. Korea has been in talks with Peru since last year to export the KT-1 turboprop training aircraft.

“The training aircraft issue will soon take shape. However, the keyword is technology transfer, which is a fundamental condition.” 

According to Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration, which is also involved in exporting defense equipment, the deal could be signed as early as next month. If materialized, the deal will see Korea exporting 20 KT-1 training aircrafts to Peru for about $200 million.

The KT-1 is Korea’s first locally developed military aircraft that went into production in 1999, and has been exported to Indonesia and Turkey.

Regarding his meeting with President Lee Myung-bak on Thursday where the bilateral relationship was upgraded to that of a strategic partnership, Humala said that they were in agreement that Korea and Peru will form a number of agreements including one regarding the defense industry and establishing a cancer research center in Peru.

Humala also said that he and Lee discussed collaborating on setting up a science and technology research center and in increasing exchange between military experts.

In a related event also on Friday, Korea’s Minister of Knowledge Economy Hong Suk-woo and Peru’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism Jose Luis Silva Martinot discussed the details of the newly formed strategic partnership.

At the talks the ministers signed a memorandum of understanding regarding Peru’s electronic trade system project, and agreed to establish an industrial cooperation committee for promoting collaborative projects, and ways to cooperate in Peru’s police patrol vehicle acquisition project.

The ministers also agreed to increase cooperation in trade and investment-related areas, which have been expanding since the implementation of the Korea-Peru Free Trade Agreement On August 1, 2011.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)