Xi to attend Moscow's Victory Day celebrations
Chinese President Xi Jinping has accepted an invitation to attend celebrations in Russia marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany this May, according to Moscow's envoy to Beijing, Igor Morgulov. Xi has also invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit China for its own World War II celebrations in early September, Morgulov told the Russia 24 news channel.
The victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 is regarded by Russia as a great feat of national resolve, as the USSR lost an estimated 26.6 million lives in World War II. Moscow has invited
'friendly nations'
to join in this year's celebrations. China and Russia share what they call a no-limits partnership, which underscores that Western efforts to isolate Russia over the Ukraine conflict have largely failed.
'Xi Jinping has accepted an invitation to participate in the celebrations on May 9 in Moscow… and has invited Vladimir Putin to China for the events scheduled in early September,'
Morgulov said in a preview of the interview released on Monday.
Read more
Russia's exclusion from Auschwitz events 'shameful' – Putin
While Imperial Japan continued fighting after the defeat of its Nazi German ally, it capitulated following the USSR's declaration of war and the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. China, which lost some 20 million people fighting the Japanese occupation, commemorates the end of the war on September 3.
Several foreign leaders have already confirmed their attendance at the May 9 celebrations in Moscow, including Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Notably, Fico has
defied
his nation's allies in the EU and NATO, citing a historical debt of gratitude to the Red Army that he said supersedes the ongoing Western confrontation with Russia.
Last month, Newsweek claimed that the Russian government anticipated a
'big guest'
from the US during the Victory Day celebrations, hinting at a potential shift in relations under President Donald Trump. Trump has called for a swift resolution of the Ukraine conflict and claims he has directly engaged Putin to advance this objective. The
Kremlin
has neither confirmed nor denied Trump's assertions, merely acknowledging that dialogue with Washington has intensified on various levels since his inauguration.
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