New Delhi, March 9 :     India and China may take up confidence-building measures on the nuclear and missile issues when the joint working group (JWG) meeting between the two sides resumes. No dates are fixed yet but the meeting is likely to take place in a few months. Sino-Indian relations, shoved into the freezer after the Pokhran nuclear tests and defence minister George Fernandes? noises about China being India?s chief security threat, began to improve with the foreign office consultations between the neighbours in Beijing last month. The JWG meeting is the next big leap in normalisation of relations. The confidence-building measures are at present limited to the conventional area and deal mainly with reduction of troops along the Line of Actual Control. But after Pokhran, there is a feeling that the time is ripe for extending these measures to the nuclear and missile fields as well. One of India?s main grouses against China had been the ?surreptitious? help it gave to Islamabad in developing Pakistan?s nuclear and missile programmes. In the past, whenever the issue has been raised by Delhi it has been denied by Beijing. But India believes that in the post-Pokhran period, a detailed discussion on this contentious issue, which is very important for maintaining the security balance in the region, needs to be discussed. India and Pakistan have already expressed their desire to discuss confidence-building measures in the nuclear and missiles areas through the Lahore Declaration announced last month. But with the Chinese shadow looming large, there are worries whether any progress can be made on these issues unless Beijing comes into the talks. Indian officials feel a beginning could be made with China in the nuclear field since the two already have some common points. Both countries have unilaterally announced a no-first-use policy. Though China wants it to be limited among the Big Five and India insists on an international treaty on the issue, it could still be seen as a good beginning. On the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, the neighbours differ. China is the only member of the P-5 which has not yet declared a moratorium on production of fissile material. Despite insistence from the US and other western countries, neither India nor Pakistan have declared a moratorium on the fissile material so far. If India could agree upon proper confidence-building measures with Pakistan and China on the nuclear and missile fields, it could also lead to a moratorium on production of fissile material. Speaking at a seminar here this afternoon on a possible axis between Russia, China and India, Chinese ambassador Zhou Gang said the foreign office consultations ?provided a new starting point for resumption and improvement? of bilateral ties. ?We are confident, as long as the two sides trust each other, do not view one side as a threat to the other side, and strictly adhere to the Five Principles of peaceful co-existence in practice, a credible foundation will be laid for the improvement and healthy development of Sino-Indian ties,? he said. In a related development, US deputy assistant secretary of state Susan Shirke, who is in charge of the department?s East Asia desk, has held talks with Indian officials on Sino-Indian relations and Washington?s policy towards Beijing. Shirke was also present in China during US secretary of State Madeleine Albright?s visit there. Her interactions with South Block, therefore, has evoked keen interest in the diplomatic circles here. During the Jaswant Singh-Strobe Talbott talks here in January this year, India impressed upon the US that Delhi?s security concerns went beyond South Asia ? a clear hint at China. This seems to have yielded results. President Clinton?s visit to China and his joint statements with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, calling for a rollback of India?s nuclear programme, had led to confusion in the foreign ministry here.