North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be among more than two dozen foreign leaders to attend China’s massive military parade next week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.
The parade, to be held in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on September 3, is part of China’s commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II following Japan’s formal surrender.
North Korean state news agency KCNA confirmed Kim’s attendance, in what would be the North Korean leader’s first trip to China since 2019.
Beijing is projecting military strength at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty as US President Donald Trump upends American alliances and partnerships. It also comes amid China’s increasingly assertive posture toward Taiwan and its territorial disputes with neighboring countries.
A total of 26 foreign heads of state and government will attend the event, including Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Assistant Foreign Minister Hong Lei told a news conference in Beijing.
Narendra Modi, the prime minister of Pakistan’s arch-rival 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.
Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who is serving as that country’s acting president after a military coup toppled an elected government in 2021 and plunged the country into a devastating civil war, will also attend.
The parade, featuring over 10,000 troops and hundreds of advanced weapons, will showcase China’s growing military power under leader Xi Jinping’s ambitious program to modernize the People’s Liberation Army.
This is a developing story, more to come.
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