• It's first time Chinese President Xi, Russia's Putin, their Iranian counterpart Pezeshkian, and Kim come together
• ‘This is of great importance in times of great instability, uncertainty, and growing tensions,’ commentator Martin Jacques tells Anadolu
• It ‘vindicates’ US foreign policy doyen Zbigniew Brzezinski that ‘greater unity between Russia, Iran, and China would pose largest existential threat to America's world dominance,’ analyst Andrew KP Leung tells Anadolu

ISTANBUL

Beijing is set to witness one of the largest diplomatic gatherings on Wednesday, with the world particularly focused on the participation of China’s President Xi Jinping, his Russian and Iranian counterparts, along with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

While it will be Kim’s maiden participation in any multilateral event since he assumed power in 2011, it will also be the first time that the leaders of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea will be at the same place, attending Beijing’s military parade to commemorate the Chinese victory against the Japanese aggression and end of World War II, as well as the 80th year of the UN's founding.

Beijing has invited at least 26 foreign guests to the event, which will see China’s military prowess and an address by 72-year-old Xi, who is in his third term as president, as well as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

“It obviously is a very important occasion,” Martin Jacques, a renowned British commentator, told Anadolu over the phone.

“This is of great importance in times of great instability, uncertainty, and growing tensions as a result” of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Jacques said.

The Trump tariffs have roiled international markets, where the two-time president has not seen any difference between friends and foes.

Although China has managed a tariff truce for a third time, at least until early November, US allies, including South Korea and Japan, as well as strategic partners, have to pay extra levies on exports to the world’s largest economy.

“Rules-based era has been undermined if not torn up by Trump. World Trade Organization means nothing, … imposing tariffs blindly, (is) kind of ego-centric basis without any discussions,” said Jacques.

“This is dangerous, where are we going to end up?”

He, however, said the Beijing gathering of Xi, Putin, Kim, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, among others, means “expressing solidarity and growing willingness to economically cooperate.”

The world, he added, “is going down a dangerous world before it gets better. … We are on kind of slippery road.”

‘Global South recalibrating’ ties

Andrew KP Leung, a long-time China analyst, told Anadolu that the Global South “is now recalibrating relationships with the hegemonic West dictated by the US towards a more peaceful, stable, equitable, cooperative, and more fruitful world orders.”

The Beijing gathering of foreign leaders on Chinese Victory Day is a “vindication” of US foreign policy doyen and former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, he noted.

Brzezinski had forewarned in his 1997 seminal work The Grand Chessboard that a “greater unity between Russia, Iran, and China would pose the largest existential threat to America's world dominance,” said the Hong Kong-based international strategist.

“Now, add North Korea, now a semi-nuclear rogue state.”

On ties between Beijing and Pyongyang, Andrew said that while North Korea has pivoted to Moscow, helping with soldiers in the Ukraine war “in exchange for Russia's missile technology, … Kim also continues to rely on Beijing for its sanctioned economy.”