'India should ensure implementation of N-deal with US'

"The Indians know very well, how we feel about the necessity to get these things done and they assure us that they are but they are still not done," Ellen Tauscher, the undersecretary of state for arms control told Washington-based Defence Writers Group at a breakfast meeting.

"We are working closely with the Indian allies and partners. There are a number of things, legislatively, that they (India) have got to do including some of the indemnity issues," said Tauscher, in response to a question.

Notably, Tauscher during the Bush administration, as a member of the Congress, was a key opponent of the deal but now is in favor of its full implementation.

The issue had also came up for discussion when the US Deputy Secretary William Burns visited India recently.

In her hour long interaction with the Defence Writers Group, Tauscher said that the US and Russia are expected to conclude a missile defence cooperation agreement this year which will be part of the "strategic stability" talks between the two countries.

"We will get a missile defense agreement for cooperation with Russia. I believe that missile defense is the metaphor for the opportunity of getting things right (in the US-Russia relationship).

"It's been an irritant in our relationship for 30 years. It's also the place where great European powers, including Russia, can work together cooperatively," she said in response to another query.

"Almost everything else that you work with on European security has been settled, decided, and worked on together for decades. The only thing that's new where you can bring the Russians in is missile defence. This is the place where we can begin to put aside the Cold War and mutually assured destruction and move toward mutually assured stability," she said.

Tauscher said the Russians are just like everybody else. "They don't like to be invited to a dinner party and arrive during the dessert," she said.