On July 4, 2024, local media PointeXpress carried an article authored by Zhang Yanling, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Antigua and Barbuda, titled “Peaceful coexistence towards a better future”, to promote the spirit of President Xi Jinping's speech at the Conference Marking the 70th Anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The full text is as follows:

Entering the second half of 2024, regional conflicts and wars continue to bring huge casualties and economic losses to relevant countries and regions, posing more severe challenges to world peace and stability. 

On 28th June, the Conference marking the 70th Anniversary of the official release of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence was held in Beijing. Focusing on the historic question of “what kind of world to build and how to build it”, the Conference proposed to answer the call of the times by carrying forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and jointly building a community with a shared future for mankind. 

70 years ago, In the wake of the Second World War, the world was overshadowed by the dark clouds of the Cold War. Like every newborn country that had just gained independence from colonial rule, New China aspired to safeguard its sovereignty and grow its national economy. 

To actively seek peaceful coexistence with all countries, New China specified the Five Principles in their entirety for the first time, namely, 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. The Five Principles were officially included in the China-India and China-Myanmar joint statements, which called for making them basic norms for state-to-state relations. 

With their inclusion also in the Declaration on Principles of International Law adopted at the 25th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in 1970 and the Declaration on the Establishment of the New International Economic Order adopted at the Sixth Special UNGA Session in 1974, the Five Principles that born in Asia, have become open, inclusive, and universally applicable basic norms for international relations and fundamental principles of international law.  

70 years later, the world again has to choose between peace and war, prosperity and recession, unity and confrontation. The Five Principles fully conform with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, emphasize the importance of mutuality and equality in handling state-to-state relations, aim at protecting the interests and pursuits of less developed countries from power politics, and offer a new path toward a peaceful settlement of historic issues and international disputes, triumphing over obsolete, narrow-minded, antagonistic and confrontational mindsets such as bloc politics and sphere of influence. 

The Vision of Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind carries forward the same spirit of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. It advocates that all countries, regardless of their size, strength, and wealth, are equal members of the international community, and have common interests, common rights, and common responsibilities in global affairs; calls on all countries to bear in mind the future of humanity and the wellbeing of the people, and uphold their essential commitment to equality, mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence and deliver more benefits to all peoples; keeps pace with the efforts for an equal and orderly multipolar world and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization bringing the international community broad prospects of peace and stability, and presenting the world with more prosperity and development. 

The past 70 years have proved time and again that an effective way for countries to meet challenges together and create a better future is to enhance unity, cooperation, communication, and understanding. In the era of economic globalization, what is needed is not gaps of division but bridges of communication, not iron curtains of confrontation but highways of cooperation. 

China and Antigua and Barbuda are both developing countries and share the common pursuit of national independence, peace and stability, sustainable development, and fairness and justice. China stands ready to continue to work with Antigua and Barbuda, to jointly promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and to create a better future for both countries.