Both China and India are developing countries, but they are not without importance in world affairs. They have the biggest populations: added together, they amount to 1.7 billion, more than one third of the world's people. As the two countries are neighbours, we cannot afford not to understand each other and promote the friendship between us. In the mid-1950s we cooperated very closely. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, jointly initiated by Premier Zhou Enlai and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, have been recognized the world over.