Close X
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
ADVT 
International

Kerry cites Modi visit to show new diplomatic challenges

Darpan News Desk IANS, 31 Oct, 2014 08:10 AM
    Citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit, Secretary of State John Kerry says US diplomacy faces new challenges in a globalised world with countries "flexing their muscles
     
     
    and standing up for their own interests."
     
    "A lot of countries have economic power today that they didn't have in the last century... and they're feeling their oats," he said in an interview Thursday with The Atlantic at the Sixth Annual Washington Ideas 
     
    Forum.
     
    With more and more nations unwilling to accept "the behemoth United States, superpower of the world, telling us all the time what we have to do" Kerry said the "American power needs to be projected 
     
    thoughtfully and appropriately."
     
    "It requires more dialogue. It requires more respect for people, more mutual interest finding," he said suggesting the situation was more like "back towards the latter part of the 19th century or even 18th 
     
    century in dealing with countries."
     
    "Countries are flexing their muscles and standing up for their own interests and they have some greater economic independence and ability to do it."
     
    "And then you see the BRICS - Brazil, Russia China, India - standing up and saying -- we want something - a different access, in a sense," he said.
     
    "So we have to work harder at it. And my warning to the Congress and to the country is, really, this doesn't come for free," Kerry said.
     
    He then cited the visit of Modi, who came to the US after going to China and Japan getting billions of dollars for infrastructure development, but didn't get much from US.
     
    "Prime Minister Modi from India came here the other day. He came after going to China and going to Japan, both of whom gave him double-digit numbers of billions of dollars for infrastructure 
     
    development," Kerry said.
     
    "China, I think, did 30 billion; Japan did somewhere similar," he said lamenting, "We couldn't even do a $1 billion loan guarantee, the United States of America."
     
    "Now everybody here ought to be shocked by that. We are behaving like we're the richest country on the face of the planet," he said.
     
    "We're still critical to everything that happens in the world. And we are not sufficiently committing the resources necessary to do what we need to do in this world," Kerry said.
     
    He discounted a suggestion that "American power in the world is living on fumes," but acknowledged that "We talk about democracy, we go out and we extol the virtues of our way of life, et cetera, but are we 
     
    backing it up?"
     
    "So we've got to get our act together," Kerry said explaining the US rebalance with Asia with 40 percent of the global economy, "we're focused strategically on how do you play the long game here?"
     
    "And the long game is raising the standards of trade, opening up more trade," he said.

    MORE International ARTICLES

    Pacific Northwest Lng President Resigns, Progress Energy Chief To Fill Role

    Pacific Northwest Lng President Resigns, Progress Energy Chief To Fill Role
    VANCOUVER - The president of Pacific Northwest LNG, which is looking to build a multibillion-dollar project near Prince Rupert, B.C., has resigned, the consortium led by Malaysian energy giant Petronas said Friday.

    Pacific Northwest Lng President Resigns, Progress Energy Chief To Fill Role

    Shakira Partners With Fisher-price To Release Baby Toys, Launches Web Series For Young Moms

    Shakira Partners With Fisher-price To Release Baby Toys, Launches Web Series For Young Moms
    NEW YORK - Shakira is partnering with Fisher-Price to launch a line of baby toys as well as a Web series for moms.

    Shakira Partners With Fisher-price To Release Baby Toys, Launches Web Series For Young Moms

    Italy's High Court Acquits Fashion Designers Dolce & Gabbana In Tax Evasion Case

    Italy's High Court Acquits Fashion Designers Dolce & Gabbana In Tax Evasion Case
    MILAN - Italy's highest court has acquitted Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana of tax evasion in a highly publicized case that led the Milan designers to close their Milan stores in protest for several days last year.

    Italy's High Court Acquits Fashion Designers Dolce & Gabbana In Tax Evasion Case

    Obama Wishes All Happy Diwali And Saal Mubarak

    Obama Wishes All Happy Diwali And Saal Mubarak
     President Barack Obama has in video message wished a Happy Diwali and "Saal Mubarak" to all those who celebrate the festival of lights saying it was a reminder that light will ultimately prevail.

    Obama Wishes All Happy Diwali And Saal Mubarak

    Dog 'wasn't to blame for anything:' Spanish woman who beat Ebola mourns for her slain pet

    Dog 'wasn't to blame for anything:' Spanish woman who beat Ebola mourns for her slain pet
    MADRID - The husband of the Spanish nursing assistant who beat Ebola says his wife now knows that authorities killed their dog Excalibur while she was in the hospital and is questioning that decision.

    Dog 'wasn't to blame for anything:' Spanish woman who beat Ebola mourns for her slain pet

    Same-sex marriages now allowed and recognized in Wyoming for first time

    Same-sex marriages now allowed and recognized in Wyoming for first time
    Attorneys for the state filed notice Tuesday morning that they would not challenge a federal judge's ruling striking down a Wyoming law defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

    Same-sex marriages now allowed and recognized in Wyoming for first time