South Korea has paved the way for exporting weapons to the United States where trade had been entirely one-way and explore nuclear reactor opportunities in Europe in a consortium with U.S. companies following the summit meeting over the weekend.

Presidents Yoon Suk-yeol and Joe Biden agreed to “strengthen partnerships in areas such as defense sector supply chain, joint development and manufacturing, including beginning discussions on a Reciprocal Defense Procurement (RDP) agreement,” according to their joint statement after summit talks on Saturday.

Washington signs an RDP agreement with its allies and partnering nations to provide tax benefits for trade between them. For example, the so-called “Buy American” regulations require that 55 percent of the cost of products procured by the federal government be made up of U.S. domestic components. If the percentage is not met, about 50 percent of a surcharge will be added.

The allies and partners on the RDP agreement, however, will likely be exempted from the regulations.

“Because U.S. domestic content threshold requirement is expected to rise to 65 to 75 percent, it was urgent to sign on RDP with Washington to enable Korean defense companies to expand and diversify customers in the U.S. and other U.S. partnering countries,” said Kim Sung-han, director of the presidential National Security Office.

With the RDP agreement with the U.S., Korea’s sole military aircraft manufacturer Korea Aerospace Industries and LIG Nex1 are expected to enjoy benefits on possible exports of their high value-added products like T-50 trainer jet and mid-range surface-to-air missile system M-SAM Block-2.

Yoon and Biden also committed to greater Seoul-Washington nuclear energy collaboration and the development and global deployment of advanced reactors and small modular reactors by “jointly using export promotion and capacity building tools, and building a more resilient nuclear supply chain.”

As the two countries have been in conflict over the core original technology, their cooperation and joint development will create greater synergy to procure reactor projects in Europe in competition with Russia, China and France.

As of May this year, five nuclear reactors are under construction in Europe with 32 under planning, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Doosan Enerbility, leading global supplier of nuclear power plant components, and Samsung C&T, Hyundai E&C and Hyundai Engineering with plant engineering capabilities anticipate greater chances in orders for next-gen small modular reactor market projected to swell to 600 trillion won ($472.6 billion) by 2030.

Korea’s state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) meanwhile announced Sunday its fully homegrown nuclear power plant Shin-Hanul Unit 1 with the APR1400 reactor has become fully operational. It is Korea’s first nuclear power plant built with indigenous technologies for all core facilities like reactor coolant pump and man-machine interface system. Having a reactor on latest reactor technology at home can raise the chances of winning overseas orders.

By Park In-hye, Baek Sang-kyung, Han Woo-ram and Lee Ha-yeon

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