Category: 2. World

The UK, France and Germany are expected to announce on Thursday that they will reimpose sweeping sanctions on Iran for failing to readmit UN inspectors into all of its nuclear sites.

The decision, under consideration for months, is likely to provoke the worst crisis in Iran’s relations with the west since Israel’s attacks on the country’s nuclear sites in June. Iran is already preparing countermeasures.

The planned reimposition of the sanctions, contained in six suspended UN resolutions, will start on 18 October when the original nuclear deal signed in 2015 expires.

The move by the three European powers – known as the E3 – cannot be vetoed by permanent members of the UN security council such as Russia and China.

The E3 is demanding Iran fully readmit inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Europe also wants details on what happened to the estimated 400kg stockpile of Iran’s highly enriched uranium after Israel’s attacks in June.

Confirmation of the partial return of IAEA inspectors on Wednesday was met with protests by officials in Tehran, who claim the strict preconditions they set have been breached.

The European countries still hope the expected formal notification to the UN that they are triggering the snapback of the sanctions will provoke Iranian concessions and further diplomacy.

Once the E3 diplomats start the process on Thursday, they have just over 30 days to press ahead or to defer the snapback, likely for six months. Negotiations may also occur at the UN over the future terms for lifting the sanctions once they have been reimposed.

The Iranian foreign ministry has warned it would respond if Europe proceeded with the snapback. Russia has proposed at the UN that the snapback of sanctions be delayed six months to 18 April to give diplomacy more time, but does not have the required votes on the UN security council.

IAEA inspectors left Iran at the start of the Israeli-US bombing campaign on the nuclear sites in June. The readmission of the inspectors is strongly opposed by those Iranians who regard the IAEA as complicit in Israel’s attacks and as little more than spies likely to hand over information directly for use by Israel. Iran has also complained that the IAEA has never condemned the Israeli attacks.

In the aftermath of the attacks that killed more than 1,000 Iranians, including their senior military and scientific leadership, the Iranian parliament passed a law setting strict preconditions on the IAEA’s return.

The IAEA director general, Rafael Grossi, said Iran had allowed inspectors to re-enter this week but they were not being permitted to visit the main bombed nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

Instead, they were being allowed to watch the refuelling process at the Bushehr site, a requirement under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) to which Iran is a signatory. Iranian officials also claimed only Russian inspectors from the IAEA would be permitted to visit Bushehr.

Grossi said “our work has begun but we are not yet at the point I have in mind. The talks must continue to reach better conclusions. This issue must be resolved as soon as possible because inspections cannot be limited to non-targeted facilities. There is no such thing as selective inspections.”

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, portrayed the Bushehr inspection as a special case to prevent it being shut down – something Iran wants to avoid.

The brinkmanship over the nature of Iran’s nuclear programme has lasted more than two decades. Indirect talks between the Trump administration and Iran this year broke down over the US’s refusal to allow Tehran to continue to enrich uranium domestically.

Iran is also managing a domestic audience still furious at the Israeli attacks in June. Long and bitter divisions have been revived between those who want Iran to shun an untrustworthy west, and those who say Iran’s economy depends on western cooperation.

Faced with this perennial infighting and raw public anger, Iranian foreign ministers moved too slowly to dissuade the European powers from playing its powerful snapback card.

The sanctions that Europe is reimposing were lifted when Iran signed the original nuclear deal in 2015. The move has economic and political consequences. The Iranian economy is reeling from water and energy shortages, and a further set of sanctions backed by the authority of the UN will only isolate Iran further.

The impact will probably be greatest on arms sales, but will also bring restrictions on Iranian shipping. Once reimposed, the sanctions can only be lifted if all five permanent members of the UN security council agree.

European powers privately recognise it is difficult for Iran to re-engage in diplomacy so soon after the Israeli-US attacks, but the October expiry date for the nuclear deal means Europe’s remaining leverage over Iran will also run out in just a few weeks.

In an attempt to calm suspicions in the Iranian parliament that it is about to readmit the inspectors, the foreign ministry stressed no agreement had been reached on the modalities of wider inspections. It said leaked written proposals revealed and denounced in the parliament on Wednesday were only draft texts being exchanged by both sides.

Iran could respond by withdrawing from the NPT but the International Crisis Group said Iran might instead choose to terminate a 1974 agreement with the IAEA that sets the parameters for the agency’s access and oversight of nuclear material.

US President Donald Trump’s administration moved on Thursday to impose stricter limits on how long foreign students and journalists can stay in the United States, the latest bid to tighten legal immigration in the country.

Under a proposed change, foreigners would not be allowed to stay for more than four years on student visas in the US.

Foreign journalists would be limited to stays of just 240 days, although they could apply to extend by additional 240-day periods — except for Chinese journalists who would get just 90 days.

The US, until now, has generally issued visas for the duration of a student’s educational programme or a journalist’s assignment, although no non-immigrant visas are valid for more than 10 years.

The proposed changes were published in the Federal Register, initiating a short period for public comment before they can go into effect.

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security alleged that an unspecified number of foreigners were indefinitely extending their studies so they could remain in the country as “‘forever’ students.”

“For too long, past administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the US virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amount of taxpayer dollars and disadvantaging US citizens,” the department said in a press statement Wednesday.

The department did not explain how US citizens and taxpayers were hurt by international students, who according to Commerce Department statistics contributed more than $50 billion to the US economy in 2023.

The United States welcomed more than 1.1 million international students in the 2023-24 academic year, more than any other country, providing a crucial source of revenue as foreigners generally pay full tuition.

A group representing leaders of US colleges and universities denounced the latest move as a needless bureaucratic hurdle that intrudes on academic decision-making and could further deter potential students who would otherwise contribute to research and job creation.

“This proposed rule sends a message to talented individuals from around the world that their contributions are not valued in the United States,” said Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration.

“This is not only detrimental to international students — it also weakens the ability of US colleges and universities to attract top talent, diminishing our global competitiveness.”

Backlash

The announcement came as universities were starting their academic years with many reporting lower enrollments of international students after earlier actions by the Trump administration.

But Trump also heard rare criticism within his base when he mused Monday that he would like to double the number of Chinese students in the United States to 600,000 as he hailed warm relations with counterpart Xi Jinping.

His remarks marked a sharp departure from Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s earlier vow to “aggressively” rescind visas of Chinese students.

The State Department said last week it had overall revoked 6,000 student visas since Trump took office, in part due to Rubio’s targeting of campus activists who led demonstrations against Israel.

Trump has also suspended billions of dollars in federal research funds to universities, with his administration contending they have not acted against antisemitism, and Congress has sharply raised taxes on private universities’ endowments.

In a speech before he was elected, Vice President JD Vance said conservatives must attack universities, which he described as “the enemy.”

Trump, at the end of his first term, had proposed curbing the duration of journalist visas, but his successor Joe Biden scrapped the idea.

A White House official has described Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine as Indian Prime Minister Narendra “Modi’s war”, stepping up pressure on Delhi to stop buying oil from Moscow.

US Trade Adviser Peter Navarro’s comments came hours after US tariffs of 50% on Indian goods kicked in on Wednesday.

The tariffs, among the highest in the world, include a 25% penalty for purchase of weapons and oil from Russia which, the US claims, is a key source of funds for its war in Ukraine.

India has called the tariffs unfair and says it will not scale back purchases, insisting it will seek the “best deal” on oil to safeguard the interests of its 1.4 billion people.

Russia, which supplied less than 2% of India’s crude before it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, now accounts for 35-40% of Delhi’s oil imports, making it the largest source.

But India has pointed out that the US has not imposed similar additional tariffs on China, which is the largest importer of Russian oil, or the European Union, which still conducts a huge amount of trade with Russia.

Navarro’s iteration of the US position came in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

“Everybody in America loses because of what India is doing. The consumers and businesses and everything lose, and workers lose because India’s high tariffs cost us jobs, factories and income and higher wages. And then the taxpayers lose because we got to fund Modi’s war,” he was quoted saying.

When asked if he actually meant “Putin’s war” instead, Mr Navarro said: “I mean Modi’s war, because the road to peace runs, in part, through New Delhi.”

Navarro then went on to add: “What’s troubling to me is that the Indians are so arrogant about this. They say, ‘Oh, we don’t have higher tariffs. Oh, it’s our sovereignty. We can buy oil from anyone we want.’ India, you’re the biggest democracy in the world, okay, act like one.”

Navarro’s comments came on the day US tariffs of 50% on goods from India took effect, a move that will disrupt millions of livelihoods across the country’s export-driven industries. India supplies everything, from clothes to diamonds and shrimp to American consumers.

But despite the war of words between Delhi and Washington – and cancellation of trade negotiations which were set to begin earlier this week – there is still hope of a way out for India, which remains a vital strategic US partner in the Indo-Pacific region.

Analysts say comments by another US official – Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent – expressing confidence in bilateral ties with India point in that direction.

“I do think India’s the world’s largest democracy; the US is the world’s largest economy. I think at the end of the day we will come together,” Mr Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday.

The tariff setback has sent the Indian government into firefighting mode. Delhi has said the immediate impact on Indian exports appears limited, but the ripple effects on the economy pose challenges that require immediate solutions.

Earlier this month, Modi promised to cut taxes to mitigate the impact of tariffs.

In its monthly review report for July released on Wednesday, India’s finance ministry said that ongoing India-US trade negotiations “will be crucial” in this regard.

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LONDON: Wounds caused by Israeli bombs and bullets accounted for nearly half of the injuries treated at outpatient clinics run by Medecins Sans Frontieres in Gaza last year, according to data published in medical journal The Lancet.

Almost a third of day patients treated for such injuries at the charity’s health centers in the territory were children, the figures revealed, further highlighting the devastating human cost to Palestinian civilians of nearly two years of conflict.

The six MSF-supported health centers from which the data was collected were located mostly in central and southern Gaza. More than 200,000 outpatient consultations were conducted at the facilities during 2024. More than 90,000 of them involved wounds, and nearly 40,000 of them were caused by “violent trauma,” primarily the result of bombing, shelling and gunfire.

The data does not include figures for other healthcare services provided by MSF, such as operating theaters and emergency rooms, nor does it take account of people killed at the scene of attacks.

In two of the hospitals, MSF staff found nearly 60 percent of lower-limb wounds were caused by explosive weapons, “often with open injuries to bone, muscle or skin,” according to The Lancet.

“Explosive weapons are designed to be used in open battlefields, but are increasingly being used in urban areas,” the report continued. “The makeshift shelters in which people live following frequent displacement offer almost no protection against explosive weapons, and especially their secondary effects such as blast, shrapnel and incendiary impact.”

The Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has been described as amounting to a genocide by many international organizations and governments, has killed nearly 63,000 Palestinians, about half of them women and children, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Of all outpatients treated for wounds at the MSF facilities last year, nearly a third were children under the age of 15, and another third were women.

The data was gathered before Israeli authorities imposed a total blockade on Gaza earlier this year, halting supplies of food and medical aid. Even before that development, however, the MSF staff collecting the information about outpatients described a lack of “crucial supplies and equipment necessary to treat these complex wounds.”

Almost a fifth of patients arriving at the health centers for first-time treatment of their injuries had infected wounds, the data revealed.

“In one MSF-supported health facility, wound infections were as high as 28 percent,” the report said.

Gaza’s healthcare system has been decimated by the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Half of the 36 hospitals that were operational before the war have closed, and more than 1,500 Palestinian healthcare workers have been killed.

MSF said the violence unleashed by the Israeli military has caused “physical and mental damage on a scale that would overwhelm even the best-functioning health systems in the world.”

NEW YORK:

Not every candidate for New York City mayor has rapped about having the same history as a chapati, or has convinced acclaimed food critic Madhur Jaffrey to perform in a video standing in a food truck, but Zohran Mamdani has.

Born in Uganda, of Indian parents, Mamdani is a former rapper and the leading candidate in the November election. His heritage could resonate in the diverse city he hopes to lead.

Mamdani took a break from music when he first ran for office, winning a seat in the state assembly in 2020 representing Queens, the New York City borough with the largest Indian population.

However, his past life in hip-hop remains a part of his official record. In his annual financial disclosures, the New York state assemblyman lists “self-employed rapper” as among his jobs and he still earns negligible royalties from performing under the names Young Cardamom and Mr. Cardamom.

Early in his music career, Mamdani performed as part of a duo with his childhood friend Hussein Abdul Bar at a music festival in their birthplace of Uganda in 2016.

Queen of Katwe, directed by Mamdani’s mother, award-winning Indian filmmaker Mira Nair, had also just been released, along with a video for a song contributed by Mamdani.
The Disney (DIS.N), opens new tab movie recounts the true story of a girl from a Ugandan slum who becomes a top chess player. Lupita Nyong’o and young actors from the movie appear in the music video.

“He would go on TV for interviews, or on radio for interviews, when his music video was going around on TV,” said Derek Debru, a co-founder of the festival known as Nyege Nyege, which translates from Luganda as “urge to dance.”

After meeting a hip-hop producer during the shooting of the movie, Mamdani recorded a few songs of his own.

Bilingual rap 

One of them about a flatbread popular in India and East Africa includes the lyric: “I got the same history as chapati, origins of India, but born in UG. Rock brown skin, but I’m Ugandan. I can rap both in English and Luganda.” 

Mamdani did not respond to a request for an interview.

Another of his projects featured renowned Indian culinary writer and actress Madhur Jaffrey.

Jaffrey, as a cool grandmother in a yellow hoodie, rapped with her middle fingers up, cursed and danced in a street food cart alongside Mamdani, who wore an apron with no shirt underneath.

“I have to make a murder as Lady Macbeth… so what’s a few dirty words between us?” Jaffrey said about her role in the video on the talk show Good Morning Britain.

When Democratic candidate Mamdani won the mayoral primary, a friend from his years in Uganda, Magnus Thomson, initially thought that he had been elected mayor. It took him a few days to realize a general election still had to be won.

Thomson, a Dane who was the sound producer on Mamdani’s song with Jaffrey, said he was happy Mamdani did not change his democratic socialist views.

“It’d be a different story if he was doing something wildly different or something I didn’t agree with, you know,” Thomson said.

In a campaign video released in July, Mamdani is seen making hip-hop legend RZA from Wu-Tang Clan laugh by referencing Wu-Tang Financial, a sketch in which the hip-hop stars played financial consultants. Their strategy was described by this line from their hit C.R.E.A.M: “Get the money, dollar, dollar bill, y’all.”

The main point of their exchange was RZA’s home in the low-income Brooklyn neighborhood Brownsville, which Mamdani said should be a place that people don’t want to leave.

Debru believes that Mamdani the rapper shares something with Mamdani the politician.
“We knew who he was. It was really exciting to see… a person like him from his background and also not shying away from his background,” Debru said. “I think this is what made him so special, that he sort of owned who he was.”
 

• Xi to review troops, military hardware at Tiananmen Square.
• Parade marks Japan’s WWII surrender anniversary on Sept 3.
• Belarus, Iran, Indonesia, Serbia leaders amongst attendants.

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BEIJING: Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will attend a military parade in Beijing, marking the first public appearance of the two leaders alongside President Xi Jinping in a show of collective defiance amid Western pressure.

No Western leaders will be among the 26 foreign heads of state and government attending the parade next week with the exception of Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia, a European Union member state, according to the Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday.

Against the backdrop of China’s growing military might during the “Victory Day” parade on September 3, the three leaders will project a major show of solidarity not just between China and the Global South, but also with sanctions-hit Russia and North Korea.

Russia, which Beijing counts as a strategic partner, has been battered by multiple rounds of Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with its economy on the brink of slipping into recession. Putin, wanted by the International Criminal Court, last travelled in China in 2024.

North Korea, a formal treaty ally of China’s, has been under United Nations Security Council sanctions since 2006 over its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Kim last visited China in January 2019.

Those attending the parade marking the formal surrender of Japan during World War II will include Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko, Iran’s President Masoud Pezashkian, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, said Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hong Lei at a news conference.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic will also attend the parade.

The United Nations will be represented by Under-Secretary-General Li Junhua, who previously served in various capacities at the Chinese foreign ministry, including time as the Chinese ambassador to Italy, San Marino and Myanmar.

On the day, President Xi Jinping will survey tens of thousands of troops at Tiananmen Square alongside the foreign dignitaries and senior Chinese leaders.

The highly choreographed parade, to be one of China’s largest in years, will showcase cutting-edge equipment like fighter jets, missile defence systems and hypersonic weapons.

BEIJING: China’s President Xi Jinping will host world leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and India’s Narendra Modi from Sunday for a summit before a huge military parade as he seeks to showcase a non-Western style of regional collaboration.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit will be held Sunday and Monday, days before the military parade in nearby Beijing to mark 80 years since the end of World War II, which North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will attend.

The SCO comprises China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus — with 16 more countries affiliated as observers or “dialogue partners.”

China and Russia have used the organization — sometimes touted as a counter to the Western-dominated NATO military alliance — to deepen ties with Central Asian states.

As China’s claim over Taiwan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have seen them clash with the United States and Europe, analysts say the SCO is one forum where they are trying to win influence.

More than 20 leaders including Iranian and Turkish presidents Masoud Pezeshkian and Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend the bloc’s largest meeting since its founding in 2001.

Hosting this many leaders gives Beijing a chance to “demonstrate convening power,” said Lizzi Lee from the Asia Society Policy Institute.

But substantial outcomes, she added, are not expected as the summit would be more about optics and agenda-setting.

“The SCO runs by consensus, and when you have countries deeply divided on core issues like India and Pakistan, or China and India, in the same room, that naturally limits ambition,” Lee told AFP.

Beijing wants to show it can bring diverse leaders together and reinforce the idea that global governance is “not Western-dominated,” she added.

Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin said Friday that the summit will bring stability in the face of “hegemonism and power politics,” a veiled reference to the United States.

Putin’s attendance comes as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky insists that a meeting with him would be “the most effective way forward.”

While US President Donald Trump has pushed to broker a Ukraine-Russia summit, Moscow has ruled out any immediate Putin-Zelensky talks.

Putin at the SCO summit will likely seek to demonstrate Russia’s continued support from non-Western partners to promote its narratives of the cause of war and “how the ‘just’ end of the war will look like,” said Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

“With Putin in the room, the war will hang over the proceedings,” Asia Society’s Lee said, but added that the topic of Ukraine would not be “front and center” of the summit.

“The SCO avoids topics that divide members, and this one obviously does,” she told AFP.

But Putin will want to show that he “is not isolated, reaffirming the partnership with Xi, and keeping Russia visible in Eurasia,” Lee added.

Modi’s visit is his first to China since 2018.

The world’s two most populous nations are intense rivals competing for influence across South Asia and fought a deadly border clash in 2020.

A thaw began last October when Modi met with Xi for the first time in five years at a summit in Russia.

Caught in geopolitical turbulence triggered by Trump’s tariff war, they have moved to mend ties.

“China will try its very best to pull out all stops to woo India, particularly capitalizing on India’s trade issues with the US,” said Lim Tai Wei, a professor and East Asia expert at Japan’s Soka University.

But fundamental differences between the countries cannot be resolved easily, he cautioned.

“Temporary respite or temperature-cooling, however, may be possible,” Lim told AFP.

Modi was not present at China’s 2015 parade and it remains unclear if he will attend this year’s.

His attendance would be “a barometer of where the geopolitical wind blows in the global contestation between the West and China,” Lim said.

China and India announced in August that they would restart direct flights, advance talks on their disputed border, and boost trade.

President Trump will chair a meeting at the White House aimed at breaking the impasse on negotiations between Israel and Hamas and mapping out a postwar plan for Gaza, three officials said.

PREMIUM

Efforts to forge a joint U.S.-Israeli plan come as Israel is facing growing domestic and international pressure to end the war amid a dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and concerns over the well-being of hostages still being held by Hamas.

Ahead of the meeting, Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff said the White House believes it could end the Israel-Hamas war by the end of the year.

“It is a very comprehensive plan we are putting together on the next day, and many people are going to see how robust it is and how well-meaning it is and it reflects President Trump’s humanitarian motives here,” Witkoff said in a Fox News interview on Tuesday.

Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will lead the discussion from the Israeli side, according to a person familiar with the matter. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also acting national-security adviser, was due to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar separately on Wednesday.

Israel wants to come up with a postwar Gaza plan before the U.N. General Assembly in September, the person familiar with the plans said, when several countries including France and Canada plan to recognize a Palestinian state. The U.S. and Israel have both sharply condemned this plan, saying the push for statehood would reward Hamas for its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks that triggered the war.

Israel announced earlier this month that its security cabinet had approved five principles for ending the war, including demilitarizing Gaza, Hamas disarming and stepping down for an alternative civilian administration and continued Israeli security control of the enclave.

Hamas has rejected those conditions. Arab mediators and families of hostages say the conditions are unrealistic and aimed at sabotaging a deal.

No new plans or details about a comprehensive deal to end the war in Gaza or what the enclave will look like after the fighting ends have been presented to Arab countries by Israel or the U.S., Arab mediators said.

The U.S. has worked closely on possible cease-fire deals and postwar planning with Arab countries, who have taken the lead on negotiations between Hamas and Israel.

“President Trump has been clear that he wants the war to end, and he wants peace and prosperity for everyone in the region. The White House has nothing additional to share on the meeting at this time,” a White House spokesperson said.

Israel has long said that a central goal of its war is to remove Hamas as a military and governmental power in Gaza. Hamas earlier this month rejected an Arab proposal that would end the war if it gave power of the enclave over to an international force.

Instead, Hamas said it would accept a 60-day cease-fire proposal that was nearly identical to one known as the Witkoff plan, and which Israel had accepted before talks fell apart in July when Israel pulled out. As part of the proposal, 10 hostages were to be released in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners. The two sides were to enter talks about reaching a lasting truce on the first day of the agreement.

Israel hasn’t given a clear response to mediators about that offer but Israeli officials have repeatedly suggested incremental steps won’t halt the war. “This war will not end until all the hostages are released,” Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon told reporters on Wednesday. “This war will not end until Hamas is defeated.”

Despite the plan to end the war, Netanyahu has also approved plans to expand it. The Israeli military is calling up about 60,000 reservists for September, when an operation to take over Gaza City is expected to begin if there isn’t a cease-fire deal. Israel has said that Gaza City remains a Hamas stronghold. It is also where Israeli officials believe Hamas is holding some hostages. Families of hostages oppose the Gaza City operation, fearful that it could result in the deaths of their loved ones.

Netanyahu is facing growing domestic pressure in Israel to end the war. Polls in Israel show that some 80% of the public supports ending the war in exchange for the remaining hostages. In recent weeks, protests calling to end the war in a deal have drawn hundreds of thousands of Israelis to the streets.

Write to Robbie Gramer at robbie.gramer@wsj.com, Anat Peled at anat.peled@wsj.com and Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com

Getty Images

AFP via Getty Images

Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are among the world leaders who will attend a military parade with President Xi Jinping in Beijing next week, in a show of collective defiance amid western pressure.

No western leaders will be among the 26 foreign heads of state and government attending the parade next week – with the exception of Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia, a member of the European Union – according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

Against the backdrop of China’s growing military might during the Victory Day parade on 3 September, the three leaders will project a major show of solidarity.

Russia, which Beijing counts as a strategic partner, has been battered by multiple rounds of western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with its economy on the brink of slipping into recession. Putin, wanted by the international criminal court, last travelled in China in 2024.

North Korea, a formal treaty ally of China’s, has been under UN security council sanctions since 2006 over its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Kim last visited China in January 2019.

Those attending the parade marking the formal surrender of Japan during the second world war will include Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko, Iran’s president Masoud Pezashkian, Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto and South Korea’s National Assembly speaker Woo Won-shik, said Chinese assistant foreign minister Hong Lei at a news conference.

Serbia’s president Aleksandar Vucic will also attend the parade.

The United Nations will be represented by under secretary general Li Junhua, who previously served in various capacities at the Chinese foreign ministry, including time as the Chinese ambassador to Italy, San Marino and Myanmar.

On the day, President Xi Jinping will survey tens of thousands of troops at Tiananmen Square alongside the foreign dignitaries and senior Chinese leaders.

The highly choreographed parade, to be one of China’s largest in years, will showcase cutting-edge equipment like fighter jets, missile defence systems and hypersonic weapons.

Millions of Chinese people were killed during a prolonged war with imperial Japan in the 1930s and 40s, which became part of a global conflict following Tokyo’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Beijing’s Communist Party has held a series of blockbuster events in recent years to commemorate its wartime resistance, vowing that China will never be brought to its knees in such a way again.

With Reuters and AP