Time for 'sleepwalking world' to pay attention

Hussein Faisal Abdullah Askary, vice-chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden, has called on countries to follow the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

"More than ever, the five principles are needed today to save the world, which is sleepwalking toward massive disaster from which humanity might not return," Askary said at a forum in Beijing on Friday to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the issuance of the principles.

"We need to remind ourselves that this declaration (of the five principles) does not belong to museums or history books. It belongs to the present and future of humankind," he said.

Askary commended the Belt and Road Initiative, saying that it shows "the Chinese wisdom of harmony within diversity that nations of different political, social, and cultural characteristics can work together to achieve the common goals of their development".

The five principles – mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence – have been the bedrock of China's foreign policy since they were first proposed by the Chinese leadership in the 1950s.