WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two years to the day after President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced an unprecedented nuclear cooperation agreement between the U.S. and India, Representative Edward J. Markey, founder of the House Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, expressed concern over the ongoing technical agreement negotiations. Indian negotiators, who are currently in Washington, D.C. this week for talks on the agreement, are reportedly continuing to press the Bush Administration to overstep the bounds of the Henry Hyde U.S.-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006.Rep. Markey said, “President Bush made a huge mistake when he decided to eviscerate our nonproliferation laws in order to restart nuclear trade with India. The idea that the incredibly generous Hyde Act is too restrictive is absurd, and if President Bush negotiates an agreement with India that violates the letter or spirit of the Hyde Act, he will be putting Congressional approval at serious risk. I am concerned that the Bush administration, which is predisposed to disregarding laws it dislikes, would consider throwing out the rulebook on a topic as critical as nuclear nonproliferation.”

The Hyde Act, passed in December 2006, created an unique exception to U.S. nuclear export law to allow nuclear cooperation with India for the first time in over 30 years, and set the legal boundaries governing any such cooperation. When a final technical agreement is negotiated between India and the administration, it will have to come before Congress again for final approval.

According to press reports, the Indian government is seeking to draft an agreement which would work around several of the most significant restrictions mandated by the Hyde Act. These restrictions include: a strict prohibition on further Indian nuclear tests, permanent and unconditional international safeguards on declared Indian facilities and materials, a refusal to assure supply of nuclear fuel in the event that cooperation is terminated, a general prohibition on cooperation on plutonium reprocessing and uranium enrichment, and a requirement for U.S. prior consent for the reprocessing or enrichment of U.S.-origin nuclear material.

“I still believe that the Hyde Act deals a significant blow to our nuclear nonproliferation efforts. But the Hyde Act does contain a number of minimal conditions which must be met for nuclear cooperation to go forward. If the Bush administration brings Congress an agreement that breaks the law, it shouldn’t be surprised if it gets rejected,” Rep. Markey concluded.