Ain’t Over til the Fat Lady Singhs

According to this WaPo article, the clock will most likely run out on the U.S.-India deal before Congress has a chance to approve it. But if you think that means that Indian PM Manmohan Singh has jeopardized his government coalition for nothing, think again. Because once the deal has been approved by the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, India will pretty much have a clean bill of health to pursue nuclear deals with third parties, like France and Russia. Indian public opinion will probably be easier to win over, a third party deal would put fewer constraints on Indian foreign policy alignment, and the U.S. will be in no real position to argue against it, since we’ll have essentially brought India back in from its NPT pariah status. It’s enough to make you wonder if Singh didn’t have this in mind all along.