ON the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the five principles of peaceful coexistence, a conference marking the event was held in Beijing on June 28, 2024. President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) attended the conference and addressed the participants. Premier Li Qiang of the State Council of the PRC moderated the conference. Former political leaders from countries including Viet Nam, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldives, Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Brazil, Guyana, Japan, Republic of Korea, Italy, France, Croatia and Slovenia, representatives of international/regional organizations and diplomatic envoys, academics, media and the business community from more than 100 countries were present at the conference, which issued the Beijing Declaration.
The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence also known as Panchsheel (Hindi for “five principles”) serve as China’s fundamental and enduring guidelines for international relations. These principles were initially introduced in the 1954 Sino-Indian Agreement and have since been incorporated into various resolutions and statements, including the preamble to the Constitution of the PRC. The word Panchsheel traces its origin to the Buddhist concept of Pañcaúîla, which describes the five moral vows of Buddhism: abstinence from murder, theft, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxicants.
The constituents of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence are: Mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; Mutual non-aggression; Mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs; Equality and mutual benefit; Peaceful coexistence. These principles reflect a strict interpretation of the Westphalian norms of state sovereignty and underscore China’s commitment to non-interventionism in its foreign policy. Historically, the Panchsheel agreement served as one of the most important relation building tools between India and China to further the economic and security cooperation. The scarlet thread of the Five Principles was that newly independent states after gaining independence from their colonial rulers would be able to develop a new and more principled approach to international relations.
The origin of Panchsheel is that they were first publicly formulated by China’s Premier Zhou Enlai, while welcoming the Indian delegation to the Tibetan trade talks on December 31, 1953. The Panchsheel Agreement, formally known as The Agreement on Trade and Intercourse with Tibet Region, was signed on April 29, 1954, by N Raghavan, the Indian Ambassador to China and Zhang Han-Fu, China’s Foreign Minister. India for the first-time recognised Tibet as the Tibet Region of China, although it reneged from it later.
Subsequently, in a joint statement in Delhi on 18 June 1954, the principles were emphasized by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru and Premier Zhou Enlai in a broadcast speech made at the occasion of the Asian Prime Ministers Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka just a few weeks after the signing of the Sino-Indian treaty in Beijing. Eventually, the Five Principles as they had been adopted in Colombo and elsewhere formed the basis of the Non-Aligned Movement, established in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1961.
Ironically, the original Panchsheel agreement—set to last for eight years—lapsed in 1962, leading to Indian belligerence and the Sino-Indian War, shattering the treaty. Attempts were made to revive the original Sino-Indian pact. During then Indian Foreign Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to Beijing in 1979 and later on the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the treaty, observed by China in 2004 and 2014, Beijing declared that “China is ready to work with India to seek guidance from the five principles of Panchsheel” but New Delhi did not respond.
Paradoxically, misguided by illusions of grandeur, New Delhi again chose aggression, as it has done with its other neighbours. Since the summer of 2020, Indian and Chinese forces have been locked in a standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh and repeated meetings at multiple levels have failed to achieve a substantive breakthrough.
Seven decades after the launch of Panchsheel, President Xi Jinping, speaking at the conference, emphasized that the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence marked a groundbreaking and epoch-making achievement in the history of international relations. He highlighted the purpose of carrying forward these principles under the changed environment and reiterated China’s resolve of building together a community with a shared future for mankind and providing a strong driving force for human progress. Xi reiterated that the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence answered the call of the times and its initiation was an inevitable historic development. He too took the opportunity to dwell on the relevance and origin of the Principles highlighting that informed by Asian wisdom, they serve as open, inclusive and universally applicable norms for international relations and fundamental principles of international law.
The Chinese President emphasized that the principles align with the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and are a path to peaceful relations. They enable countries with different social systems to establish and develop relations and encourage peaceful coexistence based on equality and mutual respect, resolving disagreements through peaceful means. Xi’s cardinal point was that developing countries benefit from these principles by deepening solidarity, seeking independent paths of development and improving North-South relations. They are designed to protect the rights of developing countries, the principles counter imperialism, colonialism and hegemonism and contribute to a more just and equitable international order.
Building a preamble to the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative, the Chinese President correlated that the vision of the Five Principles emphasizes that all countries share the same future, aiming for lasting peace, universal security, shared prosperity and an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world.; hence all countries must collaborate on Earth, our shared planet. The fact of the matter is that sovereign equality is crucial in state-to-state relations while rejecting double standards and exceptionalism, all countries should be treated equally under international law. It is imperative that the Global South advocates and practices the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, making it a force for peace, open development, global governance and exchange among civilizations, since its contributions benefit South-South and North-South cooperation and human progress. China’s commitment to cooperation and development is commendable!
—The writer, Retired Group Captain of PAF, is author of several books on China.
