WASHINGTON, 28 October 2005 — The US Congress Wednesday urged the Bush administration to be open with legislators on negotiations with India on a landmark nuclear energy pact, as experts cautioned that the deal was risky.

“As it stands, the situation is both strange and unusual in that the Indian authorities know more about this important proposal than we in Congress,” said Henry Hyde, chairman of the House of Representatives’ International Relations Committee.

He said Congress had received “little if any information” from the administration regarding either details of its ongoing negotiations with the Indian government or legislation it planned to introduce to implement the deal. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate had written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, requesting that the administration begin immediate consultations with Congress, Hyde told a hearing Wednesday in which nuclear experts testified that the deal was fraught with danger and against US interests.

Robert Einhorn, a former top non-proliferation official in the US State Department, said efforts to strengthen US-India ties “should not be pursued in a way that undermines a US national interest of equal and arguably greater importance — preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

“That is precisely what the Bush administration has done in the nuclear deal,” said Einhorn, currently a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Even though India is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), President George W. Bush agreed to give the Asian giant access to civil nuclear energy technology under a deal he signed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 18.

Under the complex deal, details of which are being negotiated by the two governments, India has to first separate civilian and military nuclear programs and place its nuclear reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections.

In addition, the US Congress would have to amend laws prohibiting US nuclear cooperation with India, deemed by Washington to be not in compliance with key non-proliferation practices and conventions.

India Opposes ‘Aggressive Action’ Against Iran Over N-Program

India opposes “aggressive action” against Iran over its nuclear program, Foreign Minister Natwar Singh said during a visit to Moscow yesterday. Addressing students at Moscow’s prestigious Mguimo University of International Relations, Natwar did not comment on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s statement calling for the destruction of Israel.

The remark was condemned by the international community, including Russia which described it as “unacceptable.” “India is against aggressive action toward Iran,” Natwar said.