 "John Kerry")
Visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said the rights of citizens, irrespective of their creeds, needed to be respected and they be allowed to protest without fear of being jailed for speaking. He also said that no single nation can fight terror groups like the Daesh/ISIS, Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Kerry, who found himself again stuck in Delhi's traffic and had to cancel his visits to three of city's religious sites, fielded questions from students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) for over an hour at a Town Hall event, covering a wide expanse from terrorism to economic growth.
In comments, which echoed US President Barack Obama on religious tolerance during his visit to India in January-end 2015, Kerry said polarization anywhere wasn't good and reflected intolerance and frustration with governance.
He also spoke about the challenges that confront the world because of technological advancement, particularly social networking sites that have made building consensus difficult while lies and distortion move around the world in a nanosecond. Kerry said that while technology helped in finding cures for several diseases, but increased automation has also meant the nature of work changing. He said technological advancement was leading to a clash between tradition and modernity in many places.
On South China Sea imbroglio, Kerry said China might have rejected the international court's verdict but has indicated its willingness to engage with its neighbours. The US Secretary of State rejected the suggestion that there could be any military solution to the problem and also said that the US had no territorial claims in the region but it is united with other countries to respect freedom of navigation. He said the US has also not taken any position on any country's claims in the South China Sea but it will stand with its allies wherever it has defence agreements.
Kerry is on a three day visit to India for the second India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue. Kerry's itinerary does not include a visit to Islamabad. On Pakistan, Kerry said it was clear that the country needed to do more work to clear terror sanctuaries and "indigenous groups" operating from its soil and affecting ties with India as well as impacting Afghanistan's peace and stability. He talked about his meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and said that in recent months Islamabad has shown some intent in meeting the challenge.
