New Delhi:Former US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill today described as "routine" communication the disclosures that Washington could terminate the Indo-US atomic deal if New Delhi conducts a nuclear test in the future.

Downplaying contents of a 26-page document released by Howard Berman, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Blackwill said, "It as such was a communication between one branch of the US Government to another and has no political ramifications for any other country". "This is routine. It doesn t have anything to do with any force or impact outside the relationship between the executive and the government in the United States," he said at a conference on Indo-US relations.

Asserting that in the United States there was an across the board support for strong Indo-US relations, he said, "the adminstration, led by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, has done everything in its power diplomatically to ensure that the deal gets NSG clearance". Blackwill, however, added whatever be the results at the final NSG meeting, the relationship between India and the United States would not be affected. "If the two countries do not succeed in getting the deal through, it would be unfortunate and the United States should insist on a two-thirds majority in the future," Blackwill said.

Source : PTI