China offers to assist Papua New Guinea with internal security.

According to Reuters on January 29, Papua New Guinea's (PNG) Foreign Minister Justin Tkachenko said the country would soon begin negotiations with China on a potential security agreement.

Papua New Guinea's (PNG) Foreign Minister Justin Tkachenko highlighted the prospects for security cooperation with China. (Source: The Australian)

Foreign Minister Tkachenko said that China approached PNG in September 2023 with an offer to assist the police force in terms of training, equipment support, and surveillance technology. The two sides continued talks last week.

He stated: "At this stage, PNG is only cooperating with China in the economic and trade sectors. China is one of PNG's largest trading partners, but they have offered to assist us with internal security."

Foreign Minister Tkachenko said that PNG would assess whether China's offer was similar to the security assistance that Australia and the United States had already provided.

He said, "China made the offer to us, but we haven't agreed at this time."

At the same time, it was emphasized that PNG would not do anything that would jeopardize its defense and security relations with Australia or the United States.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has not commented on the matter.

(according to Reuters)

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/trung-quoc-de-nghi-ho-tro-an-ninh-noi-bo-cho-papa-new-guinea-259186.html