DMPQ: What do you understand by ‘Panchsheel’ ?

The founder of India’s foreign policy, Nehru gave utmost importance to world peace in his policy planning.

India desired peaceful and friendly relations with all countries, particularly the big powers and the neighboring nations. While signing a peace agreement with China; he advocated adherence to five guiding principles known as Panchsheel.

Panchsheel includes the following five principles of foreign policy:

1. Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
2. Non-aggression against each other.
3. Non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
4. Equality and mutual benefit.
5. Peaceful co-existence.

These principles of Panchsheel were later incorporated in the Bandung Declaration, signed in the Afro-Asian Conference held in 1955 in Indonesia.