North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Russia’s Putin to join Xi at China’s Victory Day parade

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be among world leaders attending a major military parade in Beijing next week to mark 80 years since the end of World War II.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Thursday that the two leaders will participate in the “Victory Day” event, held in Tiananmen Square with thousands of participants and a display of China’s latest military technology.

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, speaker of the National Assembly, while Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico will be the only Western leader attending.

The parade takes place on September 3, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender to Allied Forces in 1945.

It is not yet clear whether Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend. Modi will already be in China that week for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin. Relations between India and China, strained since a 2020 border clash, have recently improved amid shared economic grievances with the United States and President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

Kim and Putin are expected to stand alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping at the centre of the ceremony. North Korea remains a treaty ally of Beijing, while Russia and China have maintained close coordination across energy, technology and strategic issues.

Putin last visited China in 2024, while Kim’s last trip to the country was in 2019.