The country’s security needs will be something to be talked about in the June parliament session when the Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) makes its appearance in the hope of being ratified by parliament, in the midst of public debate on its true purpose. The Secretary for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Elias Wohengu, said the security requirements of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is of priority just as any other matters of priority and should be improved going forward to address security challenges, both domestic and international. “We all can appreciate that there is a lot that can be done, over the years we’ve witnessed and seen emerging and new challenges,” said the secretary. Secretary Wohengu said PNG as a nation is unable to address these security challenges alone. “So, we have these relations that is provided for under the article 206 of our National Constitution; the 1975 Visiting Forces Act, and from which that denotes the construct for us to have defence cooperation relations with foreign military.” “The conclusion of this agreement will supersede the existing SOFA (Status of Force Agreement) we have with the United States (US). “It means SOFA will come to an end; it will cease to have a life of its own. The DCA will assume that life, it’s a new arrangement.” He said that in the foreign policy construct, the DCA does not prevent PNG or the US for both of them to enter into a third relation with another state’s military. “So, we do not in any way preclude enter into, in the future if the situation does arise, for us to have a defence cooperation agreement with China and others,” the secretary clarified. “It speaks and conforms to our foreign policy construct, which is Friends to All, Enemies to None.” There are a lot of countries that PNG has defence and security relations with which Secretary Wohengu said the country must actively engage with each of them for the purpose of PNG’s security needs. Meanwhile, there are seven more days left before the June session of parliament commences, where the DCA is expected to be debated during the session when it is presented on the floor.