The Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Yuxi said that his country "fully understood" India's energy needs as a "rising country in the developing world." With this context, he said every Government has the right to develop strategies to bridge the energy gap and the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal will help India. He went further saying "we would like India develop better relations with the US, just as we are working for better relations with America." The change of heart and his sentiments would vastly challenge the communist parties' strategy to disrupt US President George Bush's state visit to India in a couple of weeks and also oppose the nuclear deal. The communist "allies" of the Government threatened to boycott a Parliamentary address causing that to be taken off the agenda. They were strongly opposing an Indian vote against Iran's nuclear weapons program when the Chinese and Russian decision to vote with the West saw a sudden volte-face in their posturing. The US Ambassador David Mulford's comments linking the Iran vote with the nuclear deal provided another opportunity for grand standing. It would be very interesting to see how they would react to the Chinese change of policy.

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