Differences in the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group over a historic waiver for India from its guidelines narrowed down on the first day of this crucial meeting today raising hopes of a decision by tomorrow as the US mounted increasing political pressure on countries holding out on a consensus.

The opposition was down to six countries, Ireland, Austria, New Zealand, Switzerland, Norway and Netherlands. But by late tonight, sources said, Netherlands and Norway had begun to show more “flexibility” after the US explained that India had made it clear it could not accept any more amendments. The option left was to either go ahead with the exemption or let India “walk away” after coming this far.

However, China seemed to play the spoiler arguing that there was no compulsion to push for a decision at this meeting and if there were still reservations, more time should be given to address concerns related to the “global non-proliferation architecture.” Clearly, this was not acceptable to the US because it would jeopardize the entire nuclear deal going by the tough timeline that lies ahead on Capitol Hill.