John Kerry talks about climate change action and coordination

NEW DELHI: On his first visit to India as the US secretary of state, John Kerry stressed on the imperative for the two countries to work together on issues that encompass "shared planet, intertwined economies and common security".

Kerry is in India for the fourth India-US Strategic Dialogue, which will take place on Monday. He will be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and will also co-chair the India-US Higher Education Dialogue. He flew in from Qatar, where the Taliban has opened an office, creating a furore in Kabul and raising eyebrows in New Delhi.

"The world's largest democracy and the world's oldest democracy must do more together uniting not only as a threat to anyone, to counter-weigh some region or other countries, but unite as partners building a strong smart future in a critical age," Kerry said, addressing an event attended by a number of college students.

Kerry spent time driving home the challenges posed by climate change, saying that the floods in Uttarakhand were perhaps a grim reminder by nature that we needed to act sooner on this front. "We should work side-by-side in the UN climate change negotiations," Kerry said.