The Prime Minister James Marape announced that the Ship Rider Agreement signed with the United States will address some of the challenges faced in the security of our land and Maritime borders. Marape said this before parliament this week stating the Country for quite some time has been facing challenges in terms of the policing of our borders, which has caused significant damage to the economic aspirations the country would like to achieve. “We must deal with illegal and unreported fishing.” “We have transnational trading of illicit substances, including drug trafficking that compromises our borders.” PM Marape added that the Ship Rider agreement will help curb these crimes, given that current security forces of the nation lack the capacity and resources to do so. He said he believes that once the agreement is ratified by the Parliament, it will give effect to operationalize the Ship Rider. Marape further said the agreement, which was distributed to the parliament, was negotiated for Papua New Guineans, by Papua New Guineans. Since 2016, wider consultations were held by different agencies of government, particularly the Department of Justice and Attorney General, office of the state solicitor, PNG Customs, CASA PNG, NAC, Department of Defence, the PNG Defence Force, Transport and Foreign Affairs Department.