North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be among world leaders attending an upcoming military parade in China to mark 80 years since the end of World War II.
Kim and Putin will participate in the “Victory Day” parade in Beijing next week, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday.
It will be held in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and will feature a cast of thousands and a showcase of China’s latest military technology.
The guest list also includes Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, the ministry said.
The parade coincides with the anniversary of September 3, 1945, the day that the Empire of Japan formally surrendered to Allied Forces in Tokyo.
South Korea will be represented by Woo Won-shik, the speaker of the National Assembly, while Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, will be the only Western leader in attendance.
It is unclear if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the parade.
Modi will be in China that same week to attend a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a Beijing-led security alliance, in the Chinese city of Tianjin.
Indian and Chinese relations declined sharply in 2020 over a border dispute in the Himalayas, but they have thawed recently thanks to shared economic grievances with the United States and President Donald Trump’s tariff war.
Kim and Putin are expected to take centre stage at the parade alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping.
North Korea is a treaty ally of China, and Beijing provides Pyongyang with a crucial economic lifeline in the face of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons programme.
Beijing has also come to play a similar role to Russia since Putin’s unilateral invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
China has continued to buy Russian energy exports and supply it with “dual use” technology, electronics and parts that can be used for civilian but also military purposes.
Xi and Putin signed a “no limits partnership” in the weeks leading up to the invasion of Ukraine, while North Korea and Russia have also grown closer since the start of the war, with Pyongyang sending munitions and even soldiers to resupply Russian forces in their battle against Ukraine.
Putin last visited China in 2024, while Kim last visited in 2019.
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