North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin stood side by side atop Beijing’s Tiananmen Rostrum on September 3, attending a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of China’s victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan and the global victory in the War Against Fascism (Victory Day). It was the first time in 66 years that the leaders of North Korea, China, and Russia gathered together. Observers said the moment signaled Kim’s bid to project himself as an indispensable partner in the new international order that China seeks to shape. The parade was widely interpreted as a declaration that the three nations intend to band together to reshape the balance of power long dominated by the U.S.

The Victory Day events, joined by leaders from 26 countries, began at 9 a.m. (local time) in Tiananmen Square. President Putin sat to Xi’s right, and Kim to Xi’s left, as the three watched the proceedings. This marked the first trilateral gathering of the North Korean, Chinese, and Russian (formerly Soviet) leaders since a summit in Beijing in September 1959, and the first since the end of the Cold War. It was also Kim’s debut on a multilateral diplomatic stage.

Kim was accorded special treatment. During the group photo of world leaders, he stood next to Xi’s wife, Peng Liyuan. When foreign dignitaries ascended the Tiananmen Rostrum, Putin, Xi, and Kim led the procession in the front row.

After the parade, Kim attended a luncheon reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. He later rode in the same car as Putin to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse for a bilateral summit. Putin expressed gratitude to Kim for North Korea’s troop dispatches to the war in Ukraine.

The day’s events were widely seen as formalizing a new North Korea–China–Russia alignment. Although the three countries shared socialist ideology during the Cold War, they also developed diverging interests amid the Sino-Soviet border conflict, the collapse of the Cold War order, and North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, at times clashing with one another. Even as North Korea openly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and drew closer to Moscow, China maintained distance and sought to check Pyongyang–Moscow ties. But with the launch of Donald Trump’s second U.S. administration, their shared opposition to Washington has aligned their interests and made trilateral solidarity possible.

China showcased an array of advanced weaponry during the parade, including the HQ-29 interceptor missile capable of destroying low-orbit satellites, the new DF-61 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and the DF-26D missile capable of striking Guam.

In his speech, Xi stressed that the world faces a choice between peace and war as well as dialogue and confrontation, in remarks widely interpreted as targeting the U.S.