Washington, July 21
Ahead of the crucial trust vote that will decide the fate of the UPA government, the US said today that it would move forward on the nuclear deal with any dispensation in New Delhi-even if it was in minority.

Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher said the Bush administration would have no problem in dealing with a minority government as “minority governments are common around the world”. “I don’t have them off the top of my head, but I mean, minority governments are common around the world,” he said.

“You can’t say, Oh, well, we are going to stop dealing with you till the next election or until some new coalition or something. That’s not for us to say,” Boucher said commenting on the future of the nuclear deal if the UPA government fails to win the confidence vote in the Lok Sabha.

He said the US would continue to work with any legitimate government in New Delhi to push forward the deal. “If they have a legitimate government -people who are empowered to run the government -that’s who we’ll deal with,” Boucher said.

“In terms of the US and India, we deal with the legally constituted government of India — whoever is running that government at the time, that’s who we sign agreements with. So, that’s not a problem for us,” he said.

He said the Bush administration was ready to “go as far as” possible to see conclusion of the deal. “We are going to work with the Indians, we are going to work with the Congress and we are going to take this as far as we can go,” Boucher said.

“We are very excited by the prospect, we’ll see what happens in the confidence vote, but, however, far the Indians could go, we are going to try to take it that far or further. So, that’s what we are going to do,” he said.

Asked about whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was little too late in pushing ahead with the deal, Boucher said it may not be “too late”. “I guess what I’ll say is its never too late. This is not a deal between a government and another government. It’s a deal between the US and India — it’s good for India, it’s good for the US.” — PTI