Panchsheel

Panchsheel

The Panchsheel Agreement was signed in April 1954, between India and the People’s Republic of China. The five principles of the agreement were to form the basis of the relationship between India and China. The People’s Republic of China was established in 1949 and the Chinese army invaded Tibet in 1951 as Mao thought that it was an integral part of the Chinese State. China saw Indian concern over Tibet as interference in the affairs of China. To avoid antagonizing the People's Republic of China, Nehru informed Chinese leaders that India did not have political or territorial ambitions in Tibet. Tibet had been a geographical and physical buffer zone. With the invasion of Tibet by China, Nehru concluded that India’s best guarantee of security was to establish a ‘psychological’ buffer zone in the place of the physical buffer and this was the reason that the Panchsheel agreement was signed.

The Five Principles were mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non aggression, mutual non interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and peaceful co-existence.

The principles of the agreement were important because they were the basis of many other international documents. They form the basis of the Non Aligned Movement which is intergovernmental organization of states that considered themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. The Panchsheel Agreement also formed the basis of the ten point declaration that was signed at the Asian African Conference in 1955. The conference's aims were to promote Afro-Asian economic and cultural cooperation and to oppose colonialism or neo-colonialism by the United States, the Soviet Union, or any other imperialistic nation. The conference was an important step toward the crystallization of the Non-Aligned Movement. The principles have also become the norms for relations between many countries.