The Chief of Staff for the United States Army, General Raymond Odierno, has called for co-operation in building security structures in the Pacific.
General Odierno is at the Pacific Armies Chiefs' Conference in New Zealand to discuss greater cooperation in international peacekeeping.
He says the issue is not only about the presence of the US and China as eight of the world's ten largest land armies belong to countries in the Pacific.
"We want to build partnerships of understanding and partnerships of cooperation that takes away the unknown which then creates potentially in the future issues."
The Chief of Staff for the United States Army, General Raymond Odierno
