diff --git a/podman.changes b/podman.changes
index 12bdc39..83e1113 100644
--- a/podman.changes
+++ b/podman.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thu Dec  7 08:43:26 UTC 2023 - Danish Prakash <danish.prakash@suse.com>
+
+- Default to the new networking backend, netavark, on openSUSE (bsc#1217828)
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Wed Dec 06 06:02:02 UTC 2023 - danish.prakash@suse.com
 
diff --git a/podman.spec b/podman.spec
index 35b208d..de90bb5 100644
--- a/podman.spec
+++ b/podman.spec
@@ -52,13 +52,21 @@ Recommends:     apparmor-parser
 # requirement for `podman machine`
 Recommends:     gvisor-tap-vsock
 Requires:       catatonit >= 0.1.7
-# prefer Podman's new network stack on ALP
+# provide both cni and netavark on TW
+# but "prefer" netavark especially for
+# fresh installations (bsc#1217828)
+%if 0%{?suse_version} > 1600
+Requires:       (netavark or cni)
+Suggests:       netavark
+%else
+# default to Netavark on ALP
 %if 0%{suse_version} >= 1600 && !0%{?is_opensuse}
 Requires:       netavark
 %else
 Requires:       cni
 Requires:       cni-plugins
 %endif
+%endif
 Requires:       conmon >= 2.0.24
 Requires:       fuse-overlayfs
 Requires:       iptables