North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin will join world leaders at China’s upcoming military parade in Beijing, commemorating 80 years since the end of World War II.
The “Victory Day” parade, announced by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will take place next week in Tiananmen Square. It will feature thousands of participants and China’s latest military technology.
Other notable attendees include Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. South Korea will be represented by Woo Won-shik, the Speaker of the National Assembly. Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico will be the only Western leader attending.
The event marks the anniversary of September 3, 1945, when Japan formally surrendered to the Allied Forces in Tokyo.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attendance remains uncertain, although he will be in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin that same week. India-China relations, strained after a 2020 border clash, have recently warmed amid shared concerns over U.S. trade policies.
Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin are expected to stand alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping as central figures during the parade.
