Interview: Spirit of Bandung Conference remains relevant, says diplomatic analyst

The spirit of the Asian-African Conference, popularly known as the Bandung Conference, has remained intact and the principles agreed upon 60 years ago are still relevant up to the present time, according to a respected Vietnamese diplomatic analyst.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Tran Viet Thai, deputy director of the Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies under Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Diplomatic Academy, said the Bandung Conference has double meanings.

"Firstly, the Bandung Conference was a source of encouragement and motivation to the national liberation movement worldwide. Secondly, the results yielded from the conference, especially the ten principles, which were later wrapped up into Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, have become the guidelines for international relations ever since they were promulgated 60 years ago," Thai said.

Thai made his assessment on the occasion of the commemoration on Monday of the 60th anniversary of the Bandung Conference.

In 1955, 29 Asian-African countries gathered in Bandung, Indonesia to discuss independence, peace and economic prosperity. The conference adopted a final communique containing ten principles, which underlined respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations and recognition of the equality of all races and the equality of all nations.

The core principles of the Spirit of Bandung are solidarity, friendship and cooperation.

The Bandung Conference, which focused on Afro-Asian economic and cultural cooperation, led to the birth of the Non-Aligned Movement, an informal alliance among 120 countries and 17 observer countries against imperialism and colonialism.

According to Thai, the Bandung Conference should be viewed in the context of the global struggle against colonialism and imperialism whose overarching goal was to achieve national liberalization.

"The conference indeed played a big role in the struggle for independence and self-reliance among many nations in Asia and Africa," he said.

"At the end of the conference, a communique was released, which presented a bold mark and laid the foundation for international relations in modern era and has remained valid until now," Thai said.

Thai said that the principles enunciated at the Bandung Conference have been legalized to become norms or behavioral standards in international relations and these include mutual respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.

At the first Bandung Conference, the delegation of Vietnam at that time, under the name of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, was headed by its late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, Thai recalled.

"The Vietnamese delegation was active during the discussions and exchanges, and had contributed in the forging of a joint statement issued at the end of the Bandung Conference. Some 28 Asian-African countries, especially big powers like China and India, along with Vietnam, were largely responsible for the drafting of the original 10 principles which later was modified into what is now called the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence," Thai said.

The expert summed up Vietnam's contribution to Bandung Conference in two aspects. The first and direct one included participation in the conference. The indirect aspect was that Vietnam's national movement for liberalization helped motivate the success of the conference and inspired liberalization movements around the world.

Thai said Vietnam has applied the principles learnt from Bandung Conference on its diplomacy up to the present. In fact, Vietnam's long struggle for liberation and independence, self- reliance and the eventual reunification of the two Vietnams are among the spirits enshrined in the Bandung Conference.

"Nowadays, when Vietnam decided to open up to the global community, the country has continued to adhere to the principles of the Bandung Conference, particularly in the peaceful coexistence, non-interference and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other nations," Thai said.

He said that the principles of the Bandung Conference have now been presented in different areas, in economics, politics, culture and society. "In the current context of deeper and wider global integration, the fundamental principles of Bandung Conference have been further strengthened," the analyst said. Endi