The parade involving 10,000 military personnel and hundreds of pieces of military hardware celebrated the 80th anniversary of the surrender of imperial Japan which marked the end of World War II.
Chinese President Xi Jinpin was flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as they overlooked the 70-minute procession across Beijing's Tiananmen Square in an unprecedented show of solidarity. Trump commented scathingly on the event, saying that the three strongmen “conspire against the United States of America.”
The parade followed a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit designed to cast China as a global leader with deepening regional influence in Southeast and Central Asia. Pashinian also attended the summit held in the Chinese city of Tianjin earlier this week. He held talks with Xi on the eve of it.
China - Chinese President Xi Jinping meets Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Tianjin, August 31, 2025.
In a joint statement, the two leaders formally upgraded Chinese-Armenian relations to “strategic partnership.” The statement said that Beijing and Yerevan will work to deepen bilateral ties in a wide range of areas, including trade.
China is already Armenia’s second largest trading partner after Russia. Chinese-Armenian trade totaled almost $1.2 billion in the first half of this year, according to Armenian government data.
Meeting with Xi, Pashinian also reaffirmed Armenia’s desire to join the SCO, a China-led grouping of 10 Eurasian states, including Russia. His government first announced such plans in July nearly three months after committing itself to seeking Armenia’s membership in the European Union. Yerevan’s EU move criticized by Russia was part of Pashinian’s broader efforts to reorient his country towards the West.