“This agreement is probably one that is going to slip into the next administration,” Riedel told the Council on Foreign Relations, a US-based strategy group. According to him, the new president might not let the deal slip even if India’s Left parties gave a rough ride. “I certainly hope that wouldn’t happen,” he said. He said the new administration might strengthen the non-proliferation parts of the nuclear deal.

 He also said if the Democrats came to power, they might revive the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
“The US should first ratify the CTBT. I don’t think we could go to the Indians and ask them to do something that we haven’t done so far,” Riedel said.

According to him, Manmohan Singh’s government will have to face a showdown with the communists over the nuclear deal before the May 2009 general election. Riedel, who has also worked with Bill Clinton, said the improvement in Indo-US relations was “a major accomplishment of the Bush administration.”

Reidel said he knows that in India there is still resistance from communist parties against a stronger Indo-US relation. “But there is a consensus between the Congress and the main opposition BJP that US-Indian relations will be one of the central pillars of India’s foreign policy,” he explained.