An International Seminar on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence will be held in Beijing from June 14 to 15, said Wang Zhen, vice president of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA), in Beijing Wednesday.

The seminar was sponsored by the CPIFA to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Five Principles, Wang said at a news briefing, noting that over 100 domestic and foreign politicians, scholars and experts from China and 12 other countries across the world will attend the seminar.

Former Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen and former Indian President Kocheril Raman Narayanan will make keynote addresses at the seminar, and former Australian Prime Minister Robert James LeeHawke, former German Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former UN Secretary-General Butros Butros-Ghali and former US Secretaries of State Henry A. Kissinger and George P. Shultz will also give speeches at the seminar.

Wang said participants of the seminar will exchange their views on four themes, namely, the Five Principles and contemporary international relations; the Five Principles and globalization, multilateralism, cultural diversity and new international order; the Five Principles and Asian security; the Five Principles and China's peaceful development.

Wang said the seminar was held with a purpose to review the historical achievements of the Five Principles, and further, to discuss how to inject new vitality into the Five Principles, so as to make the Five Principles play an even bigger role in setting up a new international order.

Wang said the Five Principles had been accepted by the international community and become fundamental rules in dealing with state-to-state relations.

The Five Principles, initiated by China, India and Myanmar in 1954, include mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2004)