By Nectar Gan, Yong Xiong and Gawon Bae

(CNN) — 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.

The announcement, which places Putin and Kim at the top of Xi’s guest list, sets the stage for an extraordinary photo-op with the three autocratic leaders standing side by side atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing, in an unequivocal show of unity.

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. Kim, who has only embarked on 10 foreign trips since assuming power in 2011, last left his isolated country in 2023 to meet Putin at a remote spaceport in Russia’s far east.

The parade offers the reclusive head of the world’s most heavily sanctioned regime a rare opportunity to appear alongside other world leaders who are gravitating toward an alternative world order Xi and Putin have pushed to create.

Confirmation of Kim’s attendance at the parade comes just days after US President Donald Trump said he would like to meet the North Korean leader this year.

Hardware and pageantry

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.

A total of 26 foreign heads of state and government will attend the parade, 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.

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.

Conflict continued in China between communist and nationalist forces until the former eventually came out on top in 1949 leading to the creation of the People’s Republic of China that Xi now helms.

Wednesday’s 70-minute 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 has been the main political and economic patron for North Korea for decades, providing a crucial lifeline for its heavily sanctioned economy. North Korea is also China’s only formal ally, with a mutual defense treaty signed in 1961.

In recent years, North Korea has forged closer ties with Russia amid Moscow’s grinding war against Ukraine, complicating East Asia’s geopolitical balance and China’s efforts to maintain regional stability.

Xi, Putin’s most powerful backer, has watched warily as the Russian leader and Kim forged a new alliance that saw North Korea sending troops to join Russia’s war on Ukraine. Last year, Putin and Kim signed a landmark defense pact in Pyongyang and pledged to provide immediate military assistance in the event the other is attacked – a move that has rattled the US and its Asian allies.

Hong, the Chinese assistant foreign minister, hailed China and North Korea’s “traditional friendship” in the press conference Thursday, 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 said.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.