US Under Secretary of Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told Congressmen and Senators that US will not renegotiate the deal with India should the Congress tries to change the wording. He said he anticipated “vigorous debates” but called on policy makers to make a historic change to bring India into the international nuclear fold. Burns also expressed confidence of getting the Bill through, as there have been numerous policy makers who have supported this deal.

A sullen Pakistan is lobbying usual suspects in the US Congress along with China to defeat the bill. Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri told Financial Times that the deal would obviate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as it will encourage other countries to “act in the same way.” He also demanded “equality in treatment” for his country saying that Pakistanis think “black and white” and that the US should be “conscious of sentiments” in Pakistan. Alluding to Pakistan’s closer alignment to China and forced distancing from the US, he said that the US “has not been a constant friend the way China has” been. It is not clear why he thinks that there will be no erosion of NPT if Pakistan is given “equality in treatment.” It is also not clear if Pakistan is demanding same treatment just for itself or for nuclear weapons power aspirants as well (such as North Korea, Brazil, and Argentina). Pakistan continues to see this as a nuclear weapons issue while the Indo-US nuclear deal is clearly civilian and the US has also restated that it will not recognize India as a nuclear power neither will it assist India’s nuclear weapons program.