NEW DELHI (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to South Asia this week has been filled with serious diplomatic meetings and agreements to boost ties with India and Bangladesh but his motorcade’s struggle with monsoon downpours and an off-the-cuff remark about terrorism may have garnered more attention.

After threading through streets covered with nearly knee-deep rain water on Wednesday, Kerry delivered a speech at a New Delhi university extolling the virtues of the U.S.-Indian relationship and calling for adherence to a rules-based international system. His opening line to the students, though, may have resonated more deeply. “I don’t know how you got here, by boat or amphibious vehicle, but I salute you,” he said.

He would know. Kerry’s arrival in India on Monday came in the aftermath of an unusually heavy rain that left many streets in the Indian capital flooded and virtually impassable. Even with a police escort, Kerry’s motorcade from the airport to his hotel crawled through snarled traffic on a tortuous trip that at one point took roughly 90 minutes to cover just over a mile. The delay lit up Indian social media sites and made the front pages of many newspapers.

Back in the U.S., Kerry was criticized for an offhand comment he made Monday in Bangladesh suggesting the media reduce coverage of terrorist attacks. That prompted clarifications from the White House and State Department in Washington

In a speech in Bangladesh, which like India has been the target of numerous terrorist attacks, Kerry made an oft-noted point that violent extremism is a scourge that must be fought 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.