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.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Kim and Putin will participate in the “Victory Day” parade in Beijing next week.
It will be held in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Wednesday, September 3, 2025, and will feature a cast of thousands and a showcase of China’s latest military technology.
The parade coincides with the anniversary of September 3, 1945, the day that the Empire of Japan formally surrendered to Allied Forces in Tokyo.
Assistant Foreign Minister, Hong Lei told a news conference in Beijing that a total of 26 foreign Heads of state and government will attend the parade, including Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The guest list also includes 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. Other guests include Russia-friendly European leaders Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia and Slovakia’s Robert Fico.
Notably absent are leaders from major Western capitals, even though China was a crucial partner of the Allied powers in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The country’s fight against Japan’s full-scale invasion became a major front of the war in Asia, ending only in 1945 with Japan’s surrender. Fico, the Prime Minister of Slovakia, will be the only Western leader in attendance.
Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, who will be in the Chinese city of Tianjin for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization this weekend, is not among the list of leaders attending the parade.
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.
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.
Hong, the Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister, hailed China and North Korea’s “traditional friendship” in the press conference, noting the two countries supported each other in the fight against Japan’s invasion eight decades ago.
“China is willing to continue to work hand in hand with North Korea to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, advance socialist construction, and closely collaborate in promoting regional peace and stability as well as safeguarding international fairness and justice.”
Hong Lei
Parade To Showcase China’s Growing Military Power
Next week Wednesday’s parade will feature more than 10,000 troops, over 100 aircraft and hundreds of pieces of ground equipment, showcasing China’s growing military power under Xi, who has made the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) a central mission of his rule.
The tightly choreographed spectacle will offer a rare glimpse into China’s fast-advancing military technology. Officials have said all equipment on display are domestically produced and currently in service, with many making their debut – ranging from cutting-edge drones, electronic jamming systems, hypersonic weapons, air-defense and missile-defense technologies to strategic missiles.
Beijing is projecting military strength at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty as Trump upends American alliances and partnerships.
It also comes amid China’s increasingly assertive posture toward Taiwan and its territorial disputes with neighboring countries.
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