An Indonesian expert in international relations praised the China-proposed Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, saying they play an important role in China's foreign policies over the past decades and are applicable for Indonesia and the ASEAN bloc.
Evi Fitriani shared her insights as China held a conference marking the 70th anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence in Beijing on Friday.
Around 600 people, including foreign political figures, representatives of international and regional organizations, envoys from more than 100 countries, experts and scholars, and media and business representatives, attended the conference.
Seven decades ago, then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai put forth in full these principles for the first time -- "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."
The principles have been pivotal in international relations over seven decades by fostering respect and preventing domination among nations, Fitriani said.
"These principles are very important for international relations because they show mutual respect for all parties and also no domination of any parties, which is very important in relations. And the first principle, especially respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, is maybe the utmost important norm in international relations where parties and countries respect other partners and will not create conflict with them," she said.
According to the expert, the historic principles of Peaceful Coexistence, both carried on in the Bandung Declaration and incorporated into ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, are very important values and foundational to international relations.
"I think these principles are very historic, and as you mentioned, we will celebrate this back to 1955, the Bandung Declaration. These are principles that the non-alignment movement upholds, and especially in the Bandung Declaration. And later on, in 1976, ASEAN also incorporated those principles in the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC). And for Indonesia, these are also our very important values and norms that we uphold in our international relations. Also, China became ASEAN's very important partner that created the first ever free trade agreement, a regional trade agreement with ASEAN. So these principles, Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, are a very important as a foundation of [international] relations," she said.
Indonesian expert hails China's Principles for Peaceful Coexistence
