As with multiple other issues, Barack Obama seems to want to play both sides of the Indian nuclear deal. He stated his backing for the Indo-U.S. nuke deal today:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama supports a civilian nuclear trade deal between India and the United States and would not push for changes to it, an Indian news magazine quoted him as saying.

“I voted for the U.S.-India nuclear agreement because India is a strong democracy and a natural strategic partner for the U.S. in the 21st century,” he told Outlook magazine, according to a transcript provided by the magazine on Friday.

“The existing agreement effectively balanced a range of important issues, from our strategic relationship with India to our non-proliferation concerns to India’s energy needs,” he told the magazine, which will publish the interview on Saturday.

“I am therefore reluctant to seek changes.”

And he did vote for it…after he failed to attempt to stop Indian from producing weapons material as a condition of the deal. As National Journal takes note of, via Goldfarb:

When Democrats, including Obama, tried to restrict research into new types of nuclear weapons, McCain voted repeatedly against them in the Senate. When just 26 senators, including Obama, tried to make India stop producing weapons material as a condition for a deal with the United States on civilian nuclear power, McCain voted with the majority to put a potential alliance with New Delhi ahead of nonproliferation concerns.

As Goldfard says, “now he claims to be a champion of the nuclear deal”.