Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un stood shoulder to shoulder with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping at centre stage at a military parade in Beijing on September 3, marking the first such meeting among leaders of Pyongyang, Moscow and Beijing in 66 years.
The spectacle of Kim standing with Putin and Xi at the viewing gallery of Tiananmen Square marks a major display of their trilateral solidarity in defiance of the West. Wearing a black suit and a goldcolored tie, Kim slowly walked into Tiananmen Square’s red-carpeted main entrance ahead of the event.
Xi welcomed him into the square, shaking hands with him alongside other state leaders arriving at the venue, including Putin, before moving toward the rostrum. Xi spent more time greeting Kim and Putin, lightly touching their arms in a show of closeness.
Putin walked on Xi’s right, while Kim walked on his left en route to the rostrum, occasionally talking to him while smiling.
The three arrived at the rostrum side by side, sharing friendly conversations in a historic moment that displays solidarity among China, Russia and North Korea.
It marks the first time leaders of the three socialist countries have come together in 66 years, since North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, C h i n e s e founder Mao Zedong and former Soviet Union Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev jointly attended a similar military parade in 1959 at the square. It is also the first gathering of Kim, Xi and Putin — three leaders known for their defiance of the United States — in what would be a strong signal to the world about their trilateral solidarity vis a vis the US-led unipolar world order.
