Twenty-six foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, will attend China's military parade to commemorate its victory against "Japanese aggression" in WWII.
The presence of foreign leaders at the parade on September 3 in what Beijing describes as the 'war of resistance against Japanese aggression in World War II' has become a diplomatic spat between Japan and China after Tokyo urged the world leaders to refrain from attending, saying it has 'anti-Japanese overtones'.
China has lodged a diplomatic protest with Japan for its request to the world leaders not to attend the event.
At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, 26 foreign leaders will attend China's V-Day commemorations in Beijing, Assistant Foreign Minister Hong Lei announced in Beijing on Thursday.
Those include Putin and Kim, he added.
From the subcontinent, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli and Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu will attend the parade, according to the list of leaders released by Hong.
"China will stage a massive military parade on September 3 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War," Hong said.
The parade is being held in Beijing soon after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, which is scheduled for August 31 and September 1 in Tianjin city.
China is this year's rotating chair of the 10-member bloc, including Russia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus.
Last week, China's Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin told a media briefing here that 20 world leaders, besides 10 heads of international organisations, including UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, will attend the SCO summit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Tianjin to participate in the SCO summit after his two-day visit to Japan.
China's efforts to rope in leaders of several countries attending the SCO summit to attend its parade drew Japan's ire.
Japanese news agency Kyodo reported Tuesday that Japan has conveyed to other nations through its embassies abroad that China's commemorative events have 'anti-Japanese overtones' and that the participation of leaders should be carefully considered.
The Chinese foreign ministry has reacted angrily to Japanese calls to leaders of the countries by lodging a diplomatic protest with Tokyo.
"If Japan truly wants to turn this page on historical issues, it should face squarely and reflect on its history of aggression with sincerity, make a clean break with militarism, stick to the path of peaceful development, and respect the sentiments of people from China and other victim countries," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Tuesday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh are among the list of leaders released by China to attend the parade after they participated in the SCO Plus summit.
The 70-minute parade will be reviewed by Xi at Tiananmen Square, according to official media reports.
Stated to be biggest parade held by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), it will showcase a series of new-generation armaments, such as fourth-generation tanks and aircraft, unmanned intelligence and counter-unmanned equipment, and advanced missiles including hypersonic ones, Wu Zeke, a senior officer of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission (CMC) which is in-charge of the parade, was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.
All the armaments to be displayed are domestically made and in active service, he said.
Directed-energy weapons and electronic jamming systems will also be displayed, Wu said.
The parade will also feature other types of advanced equipment, such as hypersonic and air defence anti-missile equipment and strategic missiles, which will demonstrate China's strategic deterrence capability, he said.
With a high level of informatisation and intelligence, the weapons and equipment to be displayed will fully demonstrate the capability of the Chinese armed forces to adapt to sci-tech development and the evolution of war forms, and to win future wars, Wu said.
The display will fully demonstrate the Chinese military's strong ability to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests, as well as to uphold world peace, he added.
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