Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence

The Five Principles, as stated in the Sino–Indian Agreement 1954, are listed as:

1. mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty,
2. mutual non-aggression,
3. mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs,
4. equality and mutual benefit, and
5. peaceful co- existing

The panchsheel agreement served as one of the most important relation build between India and China to further the economic and security cooperation. An underlying assumption of the Five Principles was that newly independent states after decolonization would be able to develop a new and more principled approach to international relations.

According to V. V. Paranjpe, an Indian diplomat and expert on China, the principles of Panchsheel were first publicly formulated by Zhou Enlai — "While receiving the Indian delegation to the Tibetan trade talks on Dec. 31, 1953 [...] he enunciated them as "five principles governing China’s relations with foreign countries."[3] Then in a joint statement in Delhi on 18 June 1954,[3] the principles were emphasized by the Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Premier Zhou Enlai in a broadcast speech made at the time of the Asian Prime Ministers Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka just a few days after the signing of the Sino-Indian treaty in Beijing. Nehru went so far as to say: "If these principles were recognized in the mutual relations of all countries, then indeed there would hardly be any conflict and certainly no war."[4] It has been suggested that the five principles had partly originated as the five principles of the Indonesian state. In June 1945 Sukarno, the Indonesian nationalist leader, had proclaimed five general principles, or pancasila, on which future institutions were to be founded. Indonesia became independent in 1949.[5]

The five principles were incorporated in modified form in a statement of ten principles issued in April 1955 at the historic Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia, which did more than any other meeting to form the idea that post-colonial states had something special to offer the world. "A resolution on peaceful co-existence jointly presented by India, Yugoslavia and Sweden was unanimously adopted in 1957 by the United Nations General Assembly".[6] 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.[7]

China has often emphasized its close association with the Five Principles.[8] It had put them forward, as the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, at the start of negotiations that took place in Delhi from December 1953 to April 1954 between the Delegation of the PRC Government and the Delegation of the Indian Government on the relations between the two countries with respect to the disputed territories of Aksai Chin and what China calls South Tibet and India Arunachal Pradesh. The 29 April 1954 agreement mentioned above was set to last for eight years.[9] When it lapsed, relations were already souring, the provision for renewal of the agreement was not taken up, and the Sino-Indian War broke out between the two sides.

In 1979, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then India's Foreign Minister and future Prime Minister, went to China, the word Panchsheel, found its way into the conversation during talks with the Chinese.[10] On the 50th anniversary of the treaty, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, said that "a new international order on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence" should be built.[11] In June 2014, Vice President of India Hamid Ansari was welcomed by China into the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the signing Panchsheel Treaty.[12] In 2017, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said that "China is ready to work with India to seek guidance from the five principles of Panchsheel".[13]

Bhimrao Ambedkar said of the treaty in the Rajya Sabha "I am indeed surprised that our Hon’ble Prime Minister is taking this Panchsheel seriously [...] you must be knowing that Panchsheel is one of the significant parts of the Buddha Dharma. If Shri Mao had even an iota of faith in Panchsheel, he would have treated the Buddhists in his country in a different manner."[14] In 1958, Acharya Kriplani had said the Panchsheel was "born in sin" because it was set forth with the destruction of a nation; India had approved of ancient Tibet's destruction.[14]

In 2014, Zhao Gancheng, a Chinese scholar said that on the surface Panchsheel seemed very superficial; but under Xi Jinping Administration it has become relevant again.[12] In 2014, Ram Madhav wrote a piece in the Indian Express titled, "Moving beyond the Panchsheel deception" and said that if India and China decide to move on from the Panchsheel framework, it will benefit both countries.[15]

• History of Indian foreign relations

• (June 2014) Panchsheel. External Publicity Division, Ministry Of External Affairs, Government Of India.