“Among serious challenges which threaten to do away with the principles and objectives of the NPT, is the danger of working to amend the guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group in order to enable cooperation in the nuclear area with states not party to the NPT. This categorically contradicts to the letter and spirit of the NPT.”

This clear reference to the Indo-US nuclear deal was treated with some surprise in New Delhi as Cairo had gone on to state: “Such a development will forever eliminate the opportunity to destroy nuclear weapons developed outside the NPT regime — the result will be loss of credibility of the NPT and the collapse of the global non-proliferation and disarmament regime for which the treaty represents the cornerstone.”

It may be noted that the nuclear deal would allow India access to civilian nuclear commerce while still allowing it to retain its strategic weapons programme. For this, special arrangements like an India-specific Safeguards Agreement with IAEA and an exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group are in the works.

But given that the international opposition to the deal is incrementally coming out in the open, crossing each stage is going to be more difficult as many of these countries are in the IAEA Board and the NSG. All this, notwithstanding tough domestic opposition which has already upset the timeframe.