Panchsheel Principles

Panchsheel Principles ™ Respecting each other’s territory and sovereignty ™ Non-aggression ™ Non-interference in each other’s internal affairs ™ Diplomatic equality and cooperation ™ Peaceful Co-existence Nehru and the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai Despite the agreement, India and China eventually fought a war in on border disputes. The border dispute between the two nations stands till now and it is one of the top issues that determine India’s foreign policy. Attempts are onto resolve this issue through negotiations. Pandit Nehru, who held the position of Minister for External Affairs for years ( - ) was assertive about India having its own foreign policy without getting caught in the Cold War. This led to the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in . Bandung Conference(Indonesia) held on April - , attended by Heads of States are the immediate antecedent for the creation of Non- Aligned Movement. Nehru was one of the founding fathers of the NAM along with Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ahmed Sukarno of Indonesia and Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia. Nehru repeatedly explained the concept of ‘Non-Alliance’ that it did not mean neutrality, Non- Alliance meant not committing militarily to any super powers or military bloc, but retaining independence to decide issues on the basis of merit and concentrating on peaceful cooperation among nations. It was this freedom of choice that enabled India to procure arms from western countries during its war with China, and enter into a diplomatic treaty with Soviet Union just before the Bangladesh war in . The thought of not aligning with the two power blocs existed even before the formation of NAM. The Bandung Asian- African Conference held in had the principles of such a movement which later became the foundation of NAM in .