Representatives of the Armenian National Congress of America (ANKA) participated in the State Department's Global Diaspora Week launch event on Friday.

Secretary of State John Kerry, senior diplomats, development officials, and diasporan leaders representing a broad cross section of American ethnic and immigrant communities attended the event, ANCA reported on Facebook.

Addressing the participants, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States has the largest number of diaspora members of any country, and more than 60 million Americans are first or second-generation immigrants.

 If something big happens in Ukraine or Japan or Mexico or Israel or Nigeria, the diaspora is going to be talking and thinking about it almost before anybody else. And the 21st century demands a more inclusive foreign policy, and diaspora communities are often the first people to know about an issue and bring it to the attention of people in positions of power. They are often the first to debate an issue or to put out options; they are the first to have an impact on the ground – the most direct and the fastest,” he noted.

“Immigrants built America. And immigrants continue to make America what it is today,” he emphasized.