"Established power" India playing crucial role in the world: Kerry

New Delhi, Aug. 31 (ANI): U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said India is an established power and is playing a crucial role in the world. Interacting with the students of IIT Delhi, Kerry said that he had the pleasure of travelling to an incredibly diverse and fascinating country India many times over the past quarter of a century as a Senator and as a Secretary of State. "Wherever I go in this country I find a robust debate, and particularly, I find an embrace of an ambitious vision for the future that's a deep characteristic I think, a natural instinct, may be just in the DNA of Indians," said Kerry. "I am reminded that perhaps the soul constant here is change; change defined by innovation in nearly every single sector in the industry, change that is demanded by an intellectually hungry population driven by the extraordinary transformation of an emerging economy into a dynamic and diversified market place. It really has an extraordinary story, to put it simply, the India that I first encountered in early 1990s when it was already a regional leader and it was a regional leader of growing importance, and now, it is an established power with a footprint that affects the entire planet," he added. Kerry said India is playing an important role, whether its efforts to preserve the environment or uphold international norms and law or ensure the security of global commons. "The United States has not only welcomed this rise, but we made a strategic decision - a choice to encourage her because India is an essential partner in advancing our mutual interests of prosperity and security. And because we are after all the world's two largest democracies bound by common values: values of tolerance, equality, respect for religious pluralism and a yearning for peace and those are very important uniters, they are bond of glue," he added. (ANI)