“...The deal from our side, the American side is done,” said Talbott. “I was relieved when it went as smoothly as it has on the American side because I want us to turn the page and get on to the next chapter. And it blows my mind when I see the kind of difficulty it has got into on the Indian side.”

Asked about US Senator Joseph Biden’s remark that the next US administration might re-negotiate the deal, he said, “I doubt it”.

On the deal and the next US president, Talbott said that whoever wins among the three contenders Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, “Indians can be confident that there will be continuity (in US policy towards India).”

But he indicated that there would be a significant change in context. “If you have a Senator Obama or a Senator McCain or a Senator Clinton assuming the office of the President of the United States, any of those three administrations will be dealing with a new mood in the United States with regard to the nuclear issue. That mood is likely to translate into the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), an important four-letter-word in the Indian language,” Talbott said.

“And that in itself will sort of change the context within which the Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation deal will be addressed. That doesn’t mean going back and re-negotiating it. But what it does argue for is the Indian side, doing what I think Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wants to do — get the thing done, get the implementation begun, because if India does that, the next administration, the next US Senate in Congress will be dealing with a fait accompli than inherit something that is in limbo.”