BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Xinhuanet) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has warned that automatic government spending cuts set to take effect next month would undermine US diplomacy. He made the comment in his first foreign policy speech as a secretary of state.

Kerry said, "I’m particularly aware that in many ways the greatest challenge to America’s foreign policy today is in the hands not of diplomats, but of policymakers in Congress. It’s often said that we can’t be strong at home if we’re not strong in the world, but in these days of a looming budget sequester that everyone actually wants to avoid, or most, we can’t be strong in the world unless we are strong at home. My credibility as a diplomat working to help other countries create order is strongest when America at last puts its own fiscal house in order, and that has to be now."

(Source: CNTV)