• But frankly, I don’t see a problem with that. That might create a new window, those who oppose the nuclear deal now say it’ll make it impossible to test. But India’s position on the CTBT has always been that if everybody signs it, we’ll also sign it. And everybody is mostly American.

Yeah, but everybody is not just American, and we Americans should not operate on the basis that everybody else is mostly America. All countries, large and small, matter on this issue. If small countries — that won’t come up in the course of our conversation — end up with nuclear weapons and are irresponsible custodians of it, then that’s a dangerous thing. That’s what the NPT was meant to prevent. And that’s the problem that we hope India will help us address over the long term.

• But what I mean is that if the U.S. signs it, it becomes very tough for smaller countries to stay out of it. In fact, CTBT was damaged by the U.S. Congress.

Let’s recall some relevant history here. When you and I were dealing with each other, back when I was in the State Department, conducting the dialogue between Jaswant Singh and the BJP-led government here, the U.S., for quite a period of time, had signed the CTBT, which it still has, and was moving towards ratification. During that time, I still heard all kinds of objections from the Indian side. Now when the U.S. Senate did what I think is the most colossal blunder in recent decades, nine years ago when it refused to ratify the CTBT, it cut off the legs of the Clinton administration and the dialogue between us.

... contd.