The Foreign Secretary said it was also decided that India, China and Myanmar would commemorate the anniversary of Panchsheel.
China, India and Myanmar are neighbours and strategic partners sharing ancient civilisational ties. “We are historically bound together not so much through goods and commodities as through a flourishing exchange of ideas, values and philosophy”, she said.
Noting that India recently successfully conducted the world's biggest democratic elections, Singh said the new Indian government has already shown in recent weeks its “keenness to engage with the global community and specially with our neighbourhood in the cause of peace, stability and development”.
“We need to open our doors wide for the people of our nations to get together to visit one another and learn from one another. This would go a long way in better understanding between our peoples and in building a solid, friendly and cooperative relationship not just between our three countries but in Asia and the world as whole,” Singh said.
In his address, Chinese Ambassador Wei also noted that Chinese Premier Li had a cordial telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently and invited him to visit China this year.
Recalling the birth of Panchsheel 60 years ago, Wei said that during the then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai's visits to India and Myanmar, he along with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India, and Prime Minister U Nu of Myanmar, issued joint statements and initiated the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence.
The Panchsheel have served as basic norms governing state-to-state relations and thus made great contribution to peace, stability and development of Asia and the world.
“Against the new international situation, the Panchsheel are still dynamic and significant. Practices will continue to prove that the Panchsheel are not only applicable to countries sharing same social system but also to countries with different social systems, not only to the developing countries but also to the developed countries, not only to bilateral relations but also to multilateral relations,” Wei said.
