Seoul is interested in bringing cooperation with Bucharest to new heights by not just supplying weapons but also helping to modernize the Romanian transport infrastructure, South Korean Ambassador to Romania, Rim Kap-Soo, said in an interview with the Romanian publisher DC Media Group.
Specifically, in addition to providing its K2 Black Panther main tanks, Hyundai Rotem Corporation is ready to revamp the infrastructure, for example, modernize road and railway network, the diplomat detailed, as quoted by Defense Romania.
Read more: Korea Unveils New Conceptual Design of the K3 Tank, Set to Replace the K2 Tank in the 2030s
Although for now there's little detail about such an unexpected proposal bordering defense and transport domains, Defense Express estimates that such a deal will be of mutual interest and relevance for both parties, i.e. for South Korea and Romania. Moreover, it seems that an "all-in-one package" cooperation format may soon become a commonplace practice in the global arms market.
After all, such offers are not unprecedented: an interesting episode from December 2022 echoes this situation when in order to speed up the delivery of K2 tanks and K9 self-propelled artillery systems, Poland "utilized" Hyundai trams.
What happened is that according to the agreements between Poland and the Republic of Korea, alongside the tanks and self-propelled artillery Warsaw ordered trams and other public transport. The interesting part began when it came to logistics: to speed up the deliveries, military equipment and public transport were simply loaded onto one ship. The trams took most of the place in the holds on the ship, and the rest was filled with main battle tanks, Defence24 explained.
Back to the Romanian context, modernization of infrastructure could also have a pragmatic side to it, not just a matter of money-saving, and actually strengthen the country's defense capabilities.
The concerning condition of the road network was the reason, for example, why in July 2023 Bucharest found itself unable to acquire M1 Abrams, simply because the roads and bridges would not withstand their weight and must be rebuilt.
After all, the Romanian transport infrastructure was not expected to endure military equipment weighing over 50 tons, according to the construction guidelines. Considering that the K2 Black Panther has a combat weight of 55 tons, rejuvenation of transport communications would still be much preferable if not necessary.
Another example of how defense and infrastructure cooperation can intertwine is Serbia's selling its 155mm Nora B52 self-propelled guns to Azerbaijan. Besides financial gains, Belgrade also secured a supply of energy carriers and investments in its transport infrastructure.
In continuation of this topic, learn about the ultimate reason why Romania chose K2 instead of Abrams MBT, and more about the complexities of the road infrastructure in Europe — a factor that determines many nuances, from the speeds of military supplies to Ukraine to NATO's ability to quickly deploy various types of forces in specific locations in Europe.
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