Asserting that the US is determined to reduce the stockpile of nuclear weapons, Secretary of State John Kerry has said he and President Barack Obama believe that this must be an age of construction and not destruction.
"Our responsibility does not stop with eliminating the weapons. It is not enough just to take them out and retire them," Kerry said during a function here.
"We have to redirect our resources and our energy into creating jobs and opportunity, encouraging advancement and growth, helping our neighbours, helping the needy, fulfilling the rest of the requirements of the scriptures," he said.
"President Obama and I believe that this needs to be an age of construction, not destruction, one that will be defined by innovation, interactivity, and greater integration of ideas and cultures, more so than at any other time in human history," Kerry said in his remarks.
"So while weapons that were created to destroy have no place in our future, it is not enough just to melt the swords into silver. We have to make them into those ploughshares if we stand any chance of fulfilling the vision promoted by the prophets and presidents alike that one day we might be able to no longer know war," he said.
