Category: 2. World

China flexed its military muscle at a huge military parade in Beijing to mark 80 years since the end of World War II, displaying its latest generation of stealth fighters, tanks and ballistic missiles amid a highly choreographed cast of thousands.

The parade through Tiananmen Square on Wednesday morning was overseen by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also the head of the country’s military and the Chinese Communist Party.

After greeting foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Xi moved on to welcome Chinese military veterans before taking his place at the centre of the event.

Putin and Kim were just some of the 26 world leaders who attended the parade, in a group that was drawn from mostly non-Western countries.

Xi watched the parade from the Gate of Heavenly Peace, before making a speech to the 10,000 assembled members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Navy and Air Force, stating that China would continue to “adhere to a path of peaceful development”.

As he spoke of China’s victory over “Japanese aggression” in the “world anti-fascist war”, he thanked foreign governments for their help. Xi did not mention the United States by name, despite the country’s prominent role in ending World War II.

The Chinese leader said that lessons from the war were as relevant now as ever.

“Humanity is again faced with a choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, and win-win outcomes or zero-sum games,” Xi said, according to an official readout of his speech.

“The Chinese people will stand firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress, adhere to the path of peaceful development, and join hands with the rest of the world to build a community with a shared future for humanity,” he said.

He also stressed that the military continues to play a vital role in China’s national rejuvenation – one of the ideological pillars of the Chinese Communist Party and Xi’s official doctrine and worldview.

“It really is difficult to understate how much of this is a part of the national psyche, the psyche of the Communist Party that, in the previous 100 years [before World War II], China was repressed, invaded and humiliated by foreign forces,” Al Jazeera’s correspondent Katrina Yu said from Beijing.

“I think Xi Jinping [is] making a point there that that will never happen again,” Yu said.

Dressed in a grey Mao suit, Xi then toured Tiananmen Square, standing in a vehicle and greeting troops with salutations, before the parade finally commenced down Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue, a major thoroughfare in the Chinese capital.

China’s most advanced weaponry took front and centre in the parade, including a new generation of hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles, underwater drones, fighter jets, early warning aircraft and aircraft jamming systems.

Long-range intercontinental missiles – capable of delivering nuclear warheads – were also given a prominent position in the parade alongside tight formations of military personnel marching in unison before an audience of 50,000 observers.

“For Xi, the point is to reinforce the impression that the [People’s Republic of China, PRC] has arrived as a great power under his leadership,” said Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.

“Another is the array of leaders at the parade, which suggests that the PRC cannot be isolated, and is unafraid of pressure and bullying, particularly from the United States,” he said.

Above the parade, the Chinese air force staged a flyover, including helicopters with banners declaring, “Justice will prevail”, “Peace will prevail”, and “The people will win”.

Responding to the military parade on social media, as it got under way, US President Donald Trump questioned whether Xi would acknowledge the role the US played in World War II, before wishing him well.

“The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that The United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader,” Trump wrote.

“Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory… May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration.”

Trump also added: “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.”

President Donald Trump says the US has carried out a strike against a drug-carrying vessel in the southern Caribbean, killing 11 “Narcoterrorists”.

He posted on social media that Tuesday’s US military operation had targeted members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Trump said the vessel was in international waters and was transporting illegal narcotics bound for the US.

The Trump administration has ratcheted up military and political pressure against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in recent weeks, including through a $50m (£37m) reward for information leading to his arrest on drug-trafficking charges. Maduro has vowed Venezuela would fight any attempted US military intervention.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said that US forces had “shot out” a “drug-carrying boat” in the vicinity of Venezuela.

“A lot of drugs in that boat,” he said.

Trump added he had been briefed on the incident by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine.

Later the president posted on his Truth Social platform: “Earlier this morning, on my Orders, US Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.”

He added: “The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. No US Forces were harmed in this strike. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!”

His post was accompanied by a grainy aerial video showing a motor boat speeding across choppy waters before it bursts into flames.

In a social media post, Venezuela’s communications minister, Freddy Ñáñez, suggested, without evidence, that the video shared by Trump was created with artificial intelligence.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X that “today the US military conducted a lethal strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organisation”.

It is so far unclear what drugs the vessel was believed to have been carrying.

Since returning to the White House in January, the Trump administration has designated several drug-trafficking organisations and criminal groups in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America as terrorist organisations.

Among them are Tren de Aragua and another Venezuelan group, the “Cartel of the Suns”, which US authorities allege is headed by President Maduro and other high-ranking government officials, some drawn from the country’s military or intelligence services.

The US military has moved to bolster its forces in the southern Caribbean over the last two months, including through the deployment of additional naval vessels and thousands of US Marines and sailors.

The Trump administration has repeatedly signalled a willingness to use force to stem the flow of drugs into the US.

“There’s more where that came from,” Trump said of the strike on the vessel.

Venezuela’s government has reacted angrily to the deployments.

On Monday, for example, Maduro vowed to “declare a republic in arms” if the US attacked, adding that the US deployments were “the greatest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years”.

PARIS:

French judicial authorities have issued arrest warrants for ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and six other top former officials over the bombardment of a rebel-held city in 2012 that killed two journalists, lawyers said Tuesday.

Marie Colvin, 56, an American working for The Sunday Times of Britain, and French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, were killed on February 22, 2012 by the explosion in the eastern city of Homs, which is being investigated by the French judiciary as a potential crime against humanity as well as a war crime. British photographer Paul Conroy, French reporter Edith Bouvier and Syrian translator Wael Omar were wounded in the attack on the informal press centre where they had been working.

Assad escaped with his family to Russia after being ousted by Islamist rebels at the end of 2024 although his precise whereabouts have not been confirmed. Other than Assad, the warrants notably target his brother Maher al-Assad who was the de facto head of the 4th Syrian armoured division at the time, intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk, and then-army chief of staff Ali Ayoub. AFP

BEIJING:

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Tuesday that their countries’ ties were at an “unprecedented level”, during talks in Beijing ahead of a massive military parade.

Wednesday’s showcase of China’s might has been seized by world leaders as an opportunity to hold rare face-to-face talks, with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un expected to hold summits with both Putin and Xi according to South Korean sources.

Xi himself has embarked on a flurry of diplomatic meetings this week, including attendance at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the northern city of Tianjin — a forum that China sees as an alternative to Western-dominated international cooperation.

Meeting Xi on Tuesday, Putin told him “our close communication reflects the strategic nature of Russian-Chinese ties, which are currently at an unprecedented level”, according to a pooled live feed.

In a nod to cooperation between the two countries during the war, Putin said “we were always together then, and we remain together now”.

Xi and Putin have also both met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, as Tehran faces the reimposition of European sanctions over its nuclear programme.

On Tuesday Xi told Pezeshkian China opposed the “use of force to resolve differences”, but said it “supports Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty”.

The military parade on Wednesday marks 80 years since the end of World War II and will be attended by around two dozen world leaders, including Kim in his first visit to China since 2019.

Kim is expected to mingle with other world leaders at a gala performance, as well as meet Xi and Putin for talks, Lee Seong-kweun, a South Korean member of parliament briefed by Seoul’s spy agency, told reporters.

Putin also met with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico on Tuesday, praising his country’s “independent foreign policy”.

Fico has irked European leaders by criticising the bloc’s support for Ukraine and pushing back against efforts to cut energy imports from Russia. Slovakia is highly reliant on Russian gas.

Trump posts: ‘Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire’ against US.

President Donald Trump has brushed off concerns that deepening ties between China and Russia pose a threat to the United States, pointing to Washington’s unmatched military might.

Asked in a radio interview on Tuesday whether he was concerned about a China-Russia axis forming against the US, the US president said he was not.

“We have the strongest military in the world, by far,” he told the conservative pundit Scott Jennings.

“They would never use their military on us. Believe me, that would be the worst thing they could ever do.”

Trump, who campaigned on the promise of swiftly bringing an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine, also expressed disappointment with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his failure to reach a peace deal with Kyiv.

“I am very disappointed in President Putin, I can say that, and we will be doing something to help people live,” he said.

“It’s not a question of Ukraine. It’s helping people live.”

Trump’s comments come as China and Russia have been ramping up cooperation to present an alternative vision to the Western-led international order.

Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China’s Tianjin earlier this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin took turns levelling criticisms at what they view as Washington’s undue dominance over the global arena.

On Wednesday, Putin attended China’s largest-ever military parade, held to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II, an event widely seen as part of Xi’s efforts to demonstrate Beijing’s growing clout on the international stage.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump dismissed suggestions that the parade should be seen as a challenge to the US.

“I don’t see that at all, no,” he said.

“I have a very good relationship with President Xi, as you know, but China needs us much more than we need them.”

Responding later to the military parade on social media as it got under way, Trump questioned whether Xi would acknowledge the role the US played in World War II, before wishing him well.

“The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that The United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader,” Trump wrote.

“Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory … May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration.”

“Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America,” Trump added.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit in Beijing unfolded in a climate of heightened regional expectations. What has long been viewed as a largely rhetorical platform for Eurasian cooperation is being steadily reshaped by Beijing and Moscow into something more developmentally oriented.

At the meeting, China’s leadership announced steps to establish an SCO development bank and pledged a new line of credit and soft loans spread over the next three years. The amount may not be impressive in global financial terms, but for member states facing economic distress, including Pakistan, the message was unmistakable: this forum will not only discuss security and multipolarity but also begin to channel funds and investment into tangible projects. For Islamabad, that promise comes at a moment when breathing space is scarce, and every dollar counts.

The summit was also notable for the contrast in tone between the addresses of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Modi, appearing in China for the first time since the violent border standoff in Ladakh in 2020, stuck closely to the themes India has consistently raised in such gatherings. He spoke of terrorism as a universal menace, making it clear that states supporting violent networks would eventually face consequences. He also repeated India’s reservations about cross-border infrastructure corridors that do not respect sovereignty, a veiled reference to the Belt and Road Initiative and specifically the CPEC alignment through Gilgit-Baltistan.

Modi used the occasion to highlight that India’s preferred model of regional connectivity lies in ventures like the Chabahar port project and the International North–South Transport Corridor, which, in Delhi’s view, builds trust rather than infringes upon contested borders. Shehbaz Sharif, on the other hand, echoed the language Beijing has made central to the SCO: respect for territorial integrity, mutual development and inclusive cooperation. By carefully framing Pakistan’s position around sovereignty while simultaneously leaning into the promise of deeper industrial, technological and agricultural cooperation, his speech aimed to neutralise India’s recurring critique and reframe Pakistan as an indispensable partner in the bloc’s new economic chapter.

Beyond the plenary, Sharif’s engagements in Tianjin and bilateral meetings reinforced the message that Islamabad wants to turn the second phase of CPEC into a story not merely of roads and power plants but of skills, factories and innovation. It was a script designed to cast Pakistan not as a supplicant but as a willing participant in the SCO’s evolution. Both leaders, in their own way, acknowledged the same reality: the SCO is drifting away from its early identity as a security platform and becoming a forum where development, connectivity and financial support take centre stage.

But they diverged sharply on what this should mean. India views the initiative as risky if it legitimises projects that trespass into disputed territory, and it insists that security threats like terrorism must remain the group’s central concern. Pakistan, by contrast, views the new financing and project-based emphasis as an opportunity to alleviate its fiscal burdens, expand CPEC into sectors that generate exports and jobs, and gain legitimacy as a key corridor state. For Islamabad, the week offered a rare convergence of opportunity. With Chinese backing, the SCO’s proposed lending mechanisms could allow Pakistan to access alternatives beyond its exhausting cycle of IMF negotiations.

Even relatively small credit lines, if coupled with better governance, could jump-start long-promised special economic zones or fund modernisation in agriculture. The real challenge lies not in announcements but in delivery. To ensure that procurement is transparent, projects are not politicised and infrastructure actually produces productivity gains rather than white elephants.

Sharif’s government now faces the hard task of matching external pledges with internal reform. India’s approach, in turn, was cautious but uncompromising. By restating its well-known position that connectivity cannot be imposed without consent and by again prioritising terrorism, Modi ensured that Delhi’s record remained intact.

Yet the SCO’s culture of consensus and its China-led orientation mean India’s sharpest concerns are often diluted in final communiques. Delhi risked appearing like a participant whose voice is registered but not amplified. Its answer has been to champion its own corridors – Chabahar and INSTC – but the credibility of these projects depends on cargo flows and timetables, not only summit speeches. The International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is a multimodal trade route (combining sea, rail and road) designed to connect India, Iran, Russia, Central Asia and Europe in a shorter, faster and more cost-effective manner than traditional maritime routes.

It was first conceived in 2000 through an agreement between India, Iran, and Russia, and later expanded to include more than a dozen member states, including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan and others. Unless India can demonstrate that its preferred routes can deliver faster and cheaper access to Central Asia, the risk is that the SCO’s economic turn leaves Delhi more marginal than central. The politics around the summit were, as usual, fuelled by optics. Clips of leaders standing together, exchanging brief greetings or attending ceremonial events drew disproportionate attention.

Some Indian outlets celebrated images of Modi in conversation with Xi and Putin. Some Pakistani channels stressed Sharif’s presence alongside the Chinese president at commemorative events. But the deeper story lay in the speeches and in the chair’s financial announcements. China reinforced its role as the primary architect of the SCO’s new phase, while Pakistan positioned itself as a beneficiary and partner in that design. India maintained its principled reservations, ensuring it could not be accused of disengagement. What, then, might each country gain or lose from this shift? For Pakistan, the potential gain is twofold: fresh financial commitments that diversify its external options, and diplomatic cover in a bloc that amplifies its partnership with China.

The symbolism of being cast as central to SCO connectivity is valuable at a time when domestic pressures mount. For India, the risk is not immediate isolation but gradual erosion of influence. Its insistence on sovereignty resonates at home and among some external partners, but within a forum where Beijing sets the tempo, Moscow provides backing and Central Asian states are eager for investment, India’s objections can seem like background noise unless matched with viable alternatives. Ultimately, the SCO in Beijing underlined that South Asia’s two rivals are playing different games on the same stage.

Pakistan seeks capital, legitimacy and partnership through CPEC 2.0, while India insists on principle, sovereignty and caution in security. China, meanwhile, ensures that both arguments must be conducted in an arena it increasingly dominates. The outcome of this contest will not be decided by summit speeches alone. For Pakistan, success depends on whether external pledges translate into functioning industrial zones, better-managed power systems and skills development. For India, it rests on whether its alternative corridors move from blueprint to functioning trade arteries.

The lesson for Pakistan is to welcome new finance but remain vigilant about the conditions, even when they are not spelt out as explicitly as those in IMF programmes.

Only when external support is tied to internal reform has Pakistan seen sustainable growth. The lesson for India is that repeating its red lines is insufficient; it must prove through real infrastructure and trade that its model of connectivity is more viable than Beijing’s. Both will have to do more than talk if they are to convert summit presence into a durable advantage. The SCO may not rival BRICS or replace Western financial institutions, but it has outgrown its reputation as a mere photo-op. It is becoming a forum where resources, politics, and strategy intersect just enough to shape outcomes.

Pakistan left Beijing with promises of money and the aura of partnership. India left with a reiteration of principles that guard its red lines but do not shape the bloc’s trajectory. In the shifting geometry of Eurasia, one neighbour appears to have gained a little room to manoeuvre, the other a reminder of its constraints. Both, however, still determine their altitude through the work they do at home.

The writer holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK. He tweets/posts @NaazirMahmood and can be reached at:mnazir1964@yahoo.co.uk