Bill Clinton, the then US President, led the charge. China was vociferous in its condemnation. Britain’s Tony Blair was equally bent on punishing India. With the EU summit scheduled to be held in the UK that summer, Blair worked at organising EU sanctions against India. The US and the West insisted that India “cap, roll back and eliminate” its nuclear program. But France pulled back, saying that countries could do so in their bilateral capacity and not the EU as a group. France anyway did not believe in sanctioning India. Vajpayee’s NSA Brajesh Mishra flew to Paris as the PM’s special envoy and met with President Jacques Chirac. France showed an understanding of New Delhi’s security concerns, and since then relations with France have blossomed. Strategic talks began soon afterwards. Bill Clinton, while allowing the sanctions against India’s nuclear establishment to continue, opened negotiations with India. The US Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Vajpayee’s foreign minister Jaswant Singh began a series of talks that paved the way for the India-US civil nuclear agreement between former prime minister Manmohan Singh and President George Bush.