Discuss about India’s Policy of Panchsheel. (HPAS Mains Question Paper 2022 – GS 2, Q.8)
The Panchsheel Agreement, otherwise known as the Five Principles of Co-existence, is a set of principles to govern relations between states. They were first codified during an agreement between India and China in 1954.
The Panchsheel Agreement served as the foundation for India-China relations. It would advance economic and security cooperation between the two nations. The implied assumption of the Fiver Principles was that newly independent states, after decolonisation, would develop a more pragmatic approach towards international relations.
The Five Principles of the Panchsheel Agreement are as follows:
- Mutual respect’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,
- Mutual non-aggression
- Mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs,
- Equality and mutual benefit
- Peaceful co-existence
The 5 principles were emphasized by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Premier Zhou Enlai in a broadcast speech at the Asian Prime Ministers Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after signing the Sino-Indian Agreement in Beijing.
The five principles were subsequently modified as a statement of ten principles issued in April 1955 at the historic Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia. The conference itself would lead to the foundation of the Non-Aligned Movement, which shaped the idea that the post-colonial nations had something to offer to the bipolar world of the Cold War.
