VOA常速英语:Kerry In India

On his June2013 On his June 2013 trip to India, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that “the United States welcomes the strong leadership that India plays today both in the region and on the global stage, and there is more of it we can do together.”

During his trip to India, Secretary Kerry emphasized the importance of climate change as a challenge for the United States, India, and nations around the world.

“Climate change grows more urgent. There is no country in the world that does not experience some of the impact of climate change already,” stated the Secretary. He added,

“Together India and the United States are undertaking clean energy research. We are collaborating on development efforts, and together we believe we can do more to work on climate change.”

Secretary Kerry also praised progress in the economic relationship between the United States and India, noting that “Our economic engagement has seen tremendous progress in the last decade. And since that time, trade between the United States and India has grown fivefold.

Last year, we almost topped $100 billion in two-way trade in goods and services, and we are on track to do even better this year in 2013. It’s a good start, but both of us agreed today that we can do better. We can break down trade and investment barriers, and I was particularly appreciative of the productive discussion that we had on those issues.”

Afghanistan was another topic of importance during Secretary Kerry’s meetings in India. The Secretary noted our “support [for] India’s bilateral economic assistance programs with Afghanistan, with its private sector investment and its leadership and promoting regional economic integration.”

A critical aspect of regional development is the progress toward normalization of trade relations between India and Pakistan. Secretary Kerry stated that bilateral trade between India and Pakistan had increased by 21 percent in the last year, adding, “I know there’s a lot of history to the relationship between India and Pakistan, so I’m not na?ve about some of the difficulties…Particularly after talking to the leaders of both nations, however, I believe that a new dynamic is beginning to emerge, and that it can develop further.”

“This region, the world, and the…U.S.-India relationship will evolve even more dramatically in the next five or 10 or 20 years than it has in the last decade or two,” said Secretary Kerry. “This is a time of great promise between our countries and great promise for the world."