The Victory Day parade in Beijing on 3 September will mark the formal surrender of Japan during the second world war. No western leaders will attend
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are among the world leaders who will attend a military parade with President Xi Jinping in Beijing next week, in a show of collective defiance amid western pressure.
No western leaders will be among the 26 foreign heads of state and government attending the parade next week – with the exception of Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia, a member of the European Union – according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
Against the backdrop of China’s growing military might during the Victory Day parade on 3 September, the three leaders will project a major show of solidarity.
Russia, which Beijing counts as a strategic partner, has been battered by multiple rounds of western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with its economy on the brink of slipping into recession. Putin, wanted by the international criminal court, last travelled in China in 2024.
