In pictures: Putin attends huge Beijing military parade celebrating 80 years since end of WWII

Chinese President Xi Jinping took centre stage on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Wednesday as he took part in a huge military parade ostensibly to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, but which was in fact a determined attempt to project Chinese military might and political influence to a global audience.

The parade was attended by 26 heads of state, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico.

As well as being the first time that the leaders of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — the so-called Axis of Upheaval — have appeared together in public, Kim’s appearance marked the first time a North Korean leader had attended a military parade in Beijing since 1959.

US President Donald Trump, who was critical of the event for not acknowledging the vital role played by American military support in the Chinese victory over the Japanese in 1945, wrote on his own social media platform Truth Social, “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.”