About Us – Office of Security Negotiations and Agreements

The Office of Security Negotiations and Agreements in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs (PM/SNA) leads the negotiation and conclusion of security agreements that:

• Facilitate the deployment and movement of U.S. forces and materiel abroad
• Provide status protections for U.S. service members operating overseas
• Reduce financial obligations for the U.S. Government, and
• Enhance bilateral defense relationships on a global scale.

PM/SNA is engaged in over a dozen negotiations of security agreements at any given time. In this pursuit, PM/SNA draws on expertise from the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Office of the General Counsel, the Joint Staff, Combatant Commands, the Department’s regional bureaus and Embassies, and the Office of the Legal Adviser.

These security agreements include:

• Defense Cooperation Agreements (DCA)
• Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA)
• Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreements (ACSA)
• Access Agreements
• Transit and Overflight Arrangements
• State flights agreements
• Cost-sharing agreements such as the U.S.-ROK Special Measures Agreements (SMA) or U.S.-Japan Host Nation Support agreements and
• DoD Public-Private Partnership Arrangements

PM/SNA also coordinates policy reviews and approvals for logistics agreements, such as acquisition and cross-servicing agreements (ACSA), which are normally negotiated by DoD. Since 2019, PM/SNA has concluded:

• Landmark defense cooperation agreements with Hungary, Jordan, Norway, Poland, and Slovakia
• SOFAs with the Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Curacao, Guatemala, Panama, and Rwanda
• A Host Nation Support framework with Japan
• An agreement to apply provisions of the NATO SOFA to Joint Forces Command Norfolk
• Access agreements with El Salvador and Oman
• Pre-positioning agreement with Iceland
• Renewed an extension of the Mutual Airlift Support Agreement (MASA) with the Republic of Korea
• The 11th SMA with the Republic of Korea
• Renewed an extension of a cost-sharing arrangement with Luxembourg
• A Technical Arrangement to supplement the Visiting Forces Agreement with the Philippines
• ACSAs with Belgium, Bulgaria, Brunei, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Guyana, Indonesia, and Kenya