Southeast Asian Country Heads are to participate in the Chinese Military Parade.

Top Southeast Asian leaders are expected to attend China’s military parade next month on September 03^rd. marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over Japan in World War II, in what would be a show of Beijing’s growing influence in the region. Many countries are said to be sending more senior delegations than they did a decade ago, when the first such parade was held.

According to official sources, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will likely attend the parade, set to be held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on September 03^rd. They said Vietnam was likely to send its president, Luong Cuong, the country’s No 2 official. Leaders from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar were expected to first attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin before heading to Beijing for the parade. Cambodia and Myanmar are dialogue partners of the SCO, a largely Eurasian security bloc. China, which is chairing the SCO this year, will host the summit in Tianjin from August 31 to September 1. Laos is expected to formally join the grouping as a dialogue partner at the meeting.

China’s foreign ministry has said this year’s SCO summit would be the biggest held so far. It is only the second time the People’s Liberation Army has staged a Victory Day parade – the first was held in 2015.

Hu Heping, deputy head of the Communist Party’s publicity department, said in June that the parade would be part of a ceremony marking 80 years since China’s triumph over the Japanese invasion, and the global victory against fascism.

President Xi Jinping will deliver a speech during the ceremony. Hu said leaders and senior officials from foreign countries would be invited to the ceremony but did not offer further details. The delegations from Southeast Asia are expected to be higher ranking than those who travelled to China for the inaugural Victory Day parade.

In 2015, the presidents of Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam attended the event. Cambodia was represented by King Norodom Sihamoni while Thailand sent its deputy prime minister. Singapore and the Philippines sent former senior officials, and Indonesia was represented by a special envoy, its minister of national development planning.

Southeast Asia’s scaled-up representation at the parade comes as China is courting countries in the region. In recent months, Beijing has sought to portray itself as a stable and reliable partner for the region as nations navigate so-called reciprocal tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.

Xi visited the region in April on his first foreign trip of the year, with stops in Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia. He urged the nations to stand up against “unilateral bullying” and oppose hegemonism, a reference to the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs. Beijing is expected to use next month’s parade to show its rising global influence and also progress in its military modernisation drive.

In June, Wu Zeke, deputy head of the warfare bureau at the Central Military Commission Joint Staff Department, said the parade would highlight China’s will to “resolutely defend” the post-WWII order and that it would showcase the military’s combat capabilities and emerging technologies. “On top of a new generation of traditional weapons and equipment, a range of new combat forces will participate in the parade, including unmanned intelligence, underwater combat, as well as cyber and hypersonic systems”, Wu said.

Among the other world leaders expected to travel to China for the event, the Kremlin has confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic have also confirmed their attendance.

In Beijing, preparations for the massive parade are in full swing. Last weekend, some 22,000 people took part in security preparations and rehearsals, which comprehensively tested organisational support and command operations.

Team Maverick