Former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has rubbed shoulders with world leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un at a military parade in China.
Andrews was seen shaking the hand of Chinese President Xi Jinping on a red carpet at Tiananmen Square on Wednesday morning during a special event to mark 80 years since Japan’s defeat at the end of World War II.
He was later seen standing in a group photo with leaders which also included Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
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Former NSW Labor premier Bob Carr also attended the event.
When asked about Andrews and Carr’s attendance, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said they were not there to meet Putin or Kim.
“As I said the last time round 10 years ago (former minister Michael Ronaldson) was the government’s representative,” Albanese said.
Xi was shown on TV greeting and saying “Nice to meet you” and “Welcome to China” in English to two dozen largely non-western leaders during the event.
In a speech he said the Chinese people had made a huge national sacrifice and contributed to “saving human civilisation and safeguarding world peace”.
“Today humanity again has to choose between peace and war,” Xi said.
More than 50,000 spectators packed into stands in Tiananmen Square for the 70-minute showcase of aerial displays, marching troops as well as cutting-edge military equipment such as hypersonic missiles, unmanned drones and outfitted tanks.
Major roads and schools have been closed in Beijing for the parade, the culmination of weeks of painstaking security preparations and midnight rehearsals.
Xi has cast WWII as a major turning point in the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”, in which it overcame the humiliation of Japan’s invasion to become an economic powerhouse.
Earlier this week, Xi unveiled his vision of a new global order at a regional security summit, calling for unity against “hegemonism and power politics”, a thinly veiled swipe at the United States and Trump’s sweeping tariffs aimed at both friend and foe.
Putin has already used the occasion to seal deeper energy deals with China, while the gathering offers Kim an opportunity to gain implicit support for his banned nuclear weapons.
Kim, debuting in his first major multilateral event, has become the first North Korean to attend a Chinese military parade in 66 years.
— With Reuters
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