Talking about the deadline, Boucher said, “Realistically, the authoritarian voice in this regard is that of Senator Joseph Biden (chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee). The idea is to get the deal through the US Congress by July,” he said. Biden and former Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry during their visit last month had stressed that India must conclude the next steps —IAEA pact and a change in guidelines by the NSG — by May so that it could be ratified by the Congress before July-end.

“We need to allow a month or two in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which operates by consensus,” he said when asked how much time it will take for the NSG to decide on allowing global resumption of civil nuclear commerce with India.

“There are going to be a lot of questions in the NSG. But we believe India should be brought in the non-proliferation mainstream,” he said.

Boucher, who met Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and senior officials of the External Affairs Ministry on Monday, parried a question on whether India shared its draft pact with the IAEA, which is said to be nearly complete, with Washington and whether he expected External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to bring the draft pact during his March 13-15 visit to the US.