Xi Jinping hails India's 'Panchsheel' agreement, Jawaharlal Nehru's Non-Aligned Movement

Beijing:

Chinese President Xi Jinping has highlighted the relevance of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which gained traction with the Non-Aligned Movement, to end current conflicts and sought to expand its influence in the Global South amid their struggles with the West.

Xi Jinping, 71, invoked the five principles of peaceful coexistence, dubbed “Panchsheel” by India, at a conference in Beijing to mark his 70th birthday and also sought to juxtapose them with his new concept of a Global Security Initiative envisioning a shared future for humanity.

The “Panchsheel” pointers were first formally stated in the Agreement on Trade and Relations between the Tibet Region of China and India signed on April 29, 1954, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

'Panchsheel' or the five principles were part of the legacy of the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Chinese counterpart Zhou Enlai in their unsuccessful quest to find a solution to the contentious boundary issue.

“The five principles of peaceful coexistence responded to the call of time, and their initiation was an inevitable historical development. Chinese leaders specified for the first time in the past the five principles in full, namely “mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity”, “mutual non-aggression”, “mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs”, 'equality and mutual benefit' and 'peaceful coexistence',” Xi Jinping said.

“They included the Five Principles in the China-India and China-Myanmar joint declarations which jointly called for them to be fundamental norms for state-to-state relations,” Xi said at the conference which included among them guests former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and several political leaders and officials from various countries closely associated with China over the years.

The “Panchsheel”, the five principles of peaceful coexistence, originated in Asia (India) but quickly gained international attention. In 1955, more than 20 Asian and African countries participated in the Bandung Conference, Xi Jinping recalled in his speech.

The Non-Aligned Movement, founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, which emerged in the 1960s, adopted the 'Panchsheel' or five principles as its guiding principles.

“The Five Principles have set a historic benchmark for international relations and the international rule of law,” he said, stressing their relevance in ending current conflicts.

They are fully in line with the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, the development of international relations of our times and the fundamental interests of all nations, Xi said and sought to juxtapose them with his new Initiative concepts. Global Security Institute (GSI). ), which advocates the common security of nations and the “vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity”.

Xi, who began his unprecedented third five-year term last year, has pushed several initiatives, including his pet billion-dollar project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), aimed at boosting China's global influence.

Under the BRI, Beijing made huge investments in infrastructure projects in smaller countries, prompting accusations of debt diplomacy in subsequent years as many countries struggled to repay loans from China.

Moreover, facing growing strategic competition from the United States and the EU, China has in recent years jostled India and other developing countries to consolidate its influence in countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America, widely referred to as the “Global South.”

China will establish a Global South research center to better support global South-South cooperation, Xi said.

China will provide 1,000 “excellence scholarships on the five principles of peaceful coexistence”, 1,00,000 training opportunities to countries in the South over the next five years, and will also launch a “Young Leaders of the South” program, a he declared.

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