{"id":196378,"date":"2025-09-03T08:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T08:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/196378\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T08:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T08:42:10","slug":"a-look-at-the-world-leaders-who-showed-up-for-chinas-military-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/196378\/","title":{"rendered":"A look at the world leaders who showed up for China’s military parade"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONG KONG (AP) \u2014 The leaders of 26 countries<\/a> and other foreign representatives joined Chinese President Xi Jinping to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with a military parade<\/a> in the Chinese capital on Wednesday, in a show of solidarity among nations friendly to Beijing. <\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a> and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un<\/a>, who made a rare foreign trip to attend, flanked Xi as they ascended to the viewing platform overlooking Tiananmen Square and watched the display of military hardware and marching troops. Observers say the joint appearance was a show of unity against the United States.<\/p>\n

Leaders from the U.S., Western Europe, Japan and India were not present at the event and countries like South Korea and Singapore sent lower-level officials. But Xi\u2019s guest list showed Beijing\u2019s growing influence in the Global South and other emerging economies.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a glance at Xi\u2019s guests: <\/p>\n

US adversaries <\/p>\n

Joining Putin and Kim included Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, all considered U.S. adversaries. Russia\u2019s close ally Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko walked next to Kim after taking group pictures with other leaders. <\/p>\n

Putin and Kim chatted animatedly with Xi as they climbed up the stairs to the viewing platform. As they walked on the red carpet after taking group pictures, Xi said \u201cLong time, no see\u201d to Kim through an interpreter. <\/p>\n

The sight of these leaders, with Xi, appeared to observers as a challenge to a U.S.-led international order. <\/p>\n

Leaders from Asia, Africa and the Americas <\/p>\n

Asia accounted for the majority of national leaders at the event. <\/p>\n

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who initially canceled his trip to China due to protests at home, made it to Beijing and took part in the event with his counterparts in Southeast Asia, such as Cambodia\u2019s King Norodom Sihamoni, Vietnamese President Luong Cuong and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Myanmar\u2019s military leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing<\/a> and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith also joined the event. <\/p>\n

Also attending from South Asia were Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Nepali Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, and Maldives\u2019 President Mohamed Muizzu. From Central Asia came Kazakhstan\u2019s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Tajikistan\u2019s President Emomali Rahmon, Kyrgyzstan\u2019s President Sadyr Japarov, Uzbekistan\u2019s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Turkmenistan\u2019s President Serdar Berdimuhamedow. Mongolia\u2019s President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa also came.<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe\u2019s President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Republic of Congo\u2019s President Denis Sassou Nguesso were also on the guest list. <\/p>\n

Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel<\/a> was the only leader from the Americas to attend. <\/p>\n

Other guests were Azerbaijan\u2019s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia\u2019s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. <\/p>\n

The guest list had heavy overlap with the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization<\/a> days earlier, but there were some notable departures before the parade, including representatives from India and Turkey. <\/p>\n

India\u2019s Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted warm words about meetings with Xi and Putin on social media platform X. He posted a picture of himself and Putin traveling together with him, saying that \u201cconversations with him are always insightful,\u201d and wrote that he had a \u201cfruitful meeting\u201d with Xi.<\/p>\n

Most European leaders stayed away <\/p>\n

Other than Putin and Lukashenko, few European leaders attended the parade. Serbia sent Russia-friendly President Aleksandar Vucic<\/a> and Slovakia sent Prime Minister Robert Fico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But former Romanian prime ministers Adrian N\u0103stase and Viorica D\u0103ncil\u0103 took the group picture with current leaders.<\/p>\n

Other former foreign leaders were also on the guest list, including former New Zealand prime ministers Helen Clark and John Key, as well as Daniel Andrews, the former premier of the Australian state of Victoria. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press researcher Shihuan Chen in Beijing contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONG KONG (AP) \u2014 The leaders of 26 countries and other foreign representatives joined Chinese President Xi Jinping…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":196379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[33992,70221,39941,13214,9710,74,13212,109205,109193,109201,109196,57,109194,92769,1567,170,109192,109200,109197,24529,14241,109202,109199,109203,19720,50,92770,80,47502,50757,109195,109206,109204,16524,15243,109198,274,103,107,11762],"class_list":{"0":"post-196378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-aleksandar-vucic","9":"tag-alexander-lukashenko","10":"tag-anwar-ibrahim","11":"tag-asia-pacific","12":"tag-beijing","13":"tag-china","14":"tag-china-government","15":"tag-daniel-andrews","16":"tag-denis-sassou-nguesso","17":"tag-emmerson-mnangagwa","18":"tag-emomali-rakhmon","19":"tag-general-news","20":"tag-helen-clark","21":"tag-ilham-aliyev","22":"tag-india","23":"tag-japan","24":"tag-john-key","25":"tag-kassym-jomart-tokayev","26":"tag-khadga-prasad-oli","27":"tag-kim-jong-un","28":"tag-masoud-pezeshkian","29":"tag-miguel-daz-canel","30":"tag-min-aung-hlaing","31":"tag-mohamed-muizzu","32":"tag-narendra-modi","33":"tag-news","34":"tag-nikol-pashinian","35":"tag-politics","36":"tag-prabowo-subianto","37":"tag-robert-fico","38":"tag-sadyr-japarov","39":"tag-serdar-berdimuhamedow","40":"tag-shavkat-mirziyoyev","41":"tag-south-asia","42":"tag-south-korea","43":"tag-viorica-dancila","44":"tag-vladimir-putin","45":"tag-world","46":"tag-world-news","47":"tag-xi-jinping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}