North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be among more than two dozen foreign leaders who will watch China’s huge military parade next week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
The parade, which will take place at Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, on September 3, is part of China’s celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II after the formal surrender of Japan.
The announcement, which puts Putin and Kim at the top of Xi’s guest list, prepares the scenario for an extraordinary photographic opportunity with the three autocratic leaders side by side at the top of the heavenly peace gate in Beijing, in an unequivocal demonstration of unity.
North Korean state agency KCNA has confirmed the presence of Kim, who will be the first trip of the North Korean leader to China since 2019. Kim, who since taking power in 2011 made only 10 trips abroad, has last came out of his isolated country in 2023 to a remote space base in the Far East of Russia.
The parade offers the prisoner of the world’s most sanctioned regime a rare opportunity to appear alongside other world leaders who are approaching an alternative world order that Xi and Putin have promoted.
Confirmation of Kim’s presence in the parade comes only days after US President Donald Trump has stated that he would like to meet the North Korean leader later this year.
Hardware and ostentation
Beijing is projecting military power at a height of high geopolitical uncertainty, while Trump destabilizes American alliances and partnerships. This demonstration also occurs in a context of China’s increasingly assertive stance against Taiwan and its territorial disputes with neighboring countries.
A total of 26 foreign heads of state and government will watch the parade, including Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said Deputy Foreign Minister Hong Lei at a press conference in Beijing.
Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, the main rival of Pakistan, who will be in the Chinese town of Tianjin for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization this weekend, is not on the list of leaders who will watch the parade.
Myanmar Board Chief Min Aung Hlaing, who is acting as an interim president of the country after a military coup that overthrew a government elected in 2021 and plunged the country in a devastating civil war, will also be present.
Other guests include Pro-Russian European leaders, such as Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, and Slovakia.
Notably absent are the leaders of the leading western capitals, although China was a crucial partner of the allied powers in the Pacific Theater during World War II. The country’s fight against the large-scale invasion of Japan became an important front of the War in Asia, which only ended in 1945 with the surrender of Japan.
The conflict continued in China between the communist and nationalist forces until the latter was eventually defeated in 1949, leading to the creation of the Popular Republic of China, which Xi now leads.
Wednesday’s 70-minute parade will feature more than 10,000 military personnel, more than 100 aircraft and hundreds of land equipment, showing China’s growing military power under the leadership of Xi, which made the modernization of the popular liberation army (ELP) a central mission of its government.
The rigorously choreographed spectacle will offer a rare glimpse of military technology at the rapid advance of China. Authorities have stated that all equipment on display is produced internally and is currently on duty, with many to make its debut – from cutting -edge drones, electron interference systems, hypersonic weapons, air defense technologies and anti -session defense to strategic missiles.
Beijing has been North Korea’s main political and economic patron for decades, providing vital support for its strongly sanctioned economy. North Korea is also China’s only formal ally, with a mutual defense treaty signed in 1961.
In recent years, North Korea has tightened ties with Russia, amid Moscow’s prolonged war against Ukraine, complicating the geopolitical balance of the Asian East and China’s efforts to maintain regional stability.
XI, Putin’s most powerful supporter, has observed with suspicion while Russian leader and Kim forged a new alliance that led North Korea to send troops to join the Russian war in Ukraine. Last year, Putin and Kim signed one in Pyongyang and pledged to provide immediate military assistance if one of them is attacked-a measure that has worn the US and its Asian allies.
Hong, the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs in China, praised the “traditional friendship” between China and North Korea at the press conference on Thursday, noting that the two countries supported each other in the fight against the Japanese invasion eight decades.
“China is willing to continue working side by side with North Korea to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, advance socialist construction and collaborate closely in promoting regional peace and stability, as well as in the safeguarding of international justice and equity,” said Hong.
This news has been updated with additional developments.
