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As a major U.S.-Indian nuclear deal nears final approval, China, Russia -- and especially Pakistan -- will be watching nervously.

Despite the chaos in the U.S. Congress over the financial bailout plan, the U.S.-Indian nuclear deal managed to make its way through the Senate late Oct. 1.

The deal is not exactly what India was angling for, however. The version Congress approved included two contentious provisions. One would ban India from reprocessing nuclear fuel (which would allow for the extraction of weapons-grade plutonium), while a second would nullify the deal should India conduct a nuclear test.

India wanted the agreement reworded ambiguously to get around these sticking points, and is now expecting U.S. President George W. Bush to issue a signing statement to appease Indian concerns when he approves the deal. A signing statement is essentially a written pronouncement in which the president conveys his disagreement with a particular provision — or provisions — of a law and states that he does not plan to implement the disputed provision or provisions as Congress intended; Bush reportedly has signed hundreds of such statements during his term in office. The statement itself is nonbinding, and does not have to go back to Congress for approval, leaving it up to the next administration to decide how exactly to implement the deal should India violate either of the two contentious provisions.

After barely surviving a no-confidence vote that centered on the U.S.-Indian nuclear deal, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh needs this signing statement to fend off opposition at home. In any case, it appears Bush and Singh will sign the deal within the next two weeks.