Comments from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency Director.

As I travel throughout the community, the dedication and commitment of our team to the security cooperation mission is obvious. Everyone is working hard and together on all professional levels to respond quickly and effectively to a host of ever evolving tasks and missions.

The military departments, combatant commands, security assistance offices, regional centers and DSCA all play vital roles in the security cooperation community. The engagement of our friends and allies in coalition and cooperative efforts through military-to-military programs, International Military Education and Training (IMET), Excess Defense Articles (EDA), Foreign Military Financing (FMF), Foreign Military Sales (FMS), Counter Terrorism Training Fellowship Programs, the Regional Centers and more all contribute to our community's success.

For fiscal year 2005, our overall FMS totaled $10.6 billion. For the first time in the last four years non-$36 billion sales accounted for over half of sales. Forty percent of our major sales requiring notification included aircraft modernization, support and maintenance programs. We also experienced a surge in Humanitarian Assistance. Most notable are the responses to the Tsunami in South East Asia, Hurricane Katrina at home, and now the tragedy in Pakistan. We continued to focus our security cooperation programs and projects on helping our allies and friends Build Partnership Capacity. By developing and honing basic military skills and doctrine, our international partners will become more effective coalition forces, capable of fighting terrorism and instability within their own borders and partnering with the United States when necessary.

We must continue building these partnerships with our friends and allies in ways that strengthen their independent and regional security objectives as well as enhance interoperability during current and future coalition operations. Ongoing coalition operations in Afghanistan and Iraq illustrate how basic equipment and training are making the difference, where most of the needs do not entail bigticket items but basic items required to fight a war.

The security cooperation community executes a wide array of defense initiatives. While the impact of what we do as a whole is visible, the independent contributions of the individual organizations are often not so obvious. Each component within this complex structure helps build the capabilities and cooperative relationships that support Department of Defense's goals and objectives in over 190 countries and organizations around the world.

It is important that we communicate that story inside and outside of the security cooperation community. We are expanding the focus of Partners to include a section titled "Around the Community." This will allow us to present a snapshot of your contributions to the security cooperation mission. This issue focuses on the Security Cooperation Information Portal, the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies and C4ISR.

Whether it's helping with the regional centers' transition, developing robust knowledge portals, equipping partners, providing specialized training or working through radical changes in the budget process, the security cooperation community is aggressively moving forward at a remarkable pace. It is through the combined efforts of the entire community that we will continue to achieve success. Keep up the hard work. Thanks for your dedication.