Chinese President Xi Jinping has accepted an invitation to participate in the celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, according to Russian Ambassador to China, Igor Morgulow. The Chinese side has not yet made an official statement, but the invitation has been accepted, the diplomat said.
“Xi Jinping has accepted the invitation to participate in the celebrations in Moscow on May 9 and at the same time invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to celebrations in China, which are scheduled to take place in September” Morgulow said in an interview with Rossija 24.
This is not the first meeting between the two leaders, as Xi was in Moscow for talks with Putin in March 2023.
Besides Xi, other heads of state have expressed interest in attending the victory parade in Moscow, including Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitri Peskow, announced that Russia will host a “very large number of heads of state” during the celebrations. Defense Minister Andrei Belousow said that military personnel from 19 countries have been invited to the festivities.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has also received an invitation, it was reported on Monday. Russian Ambassador to Armenia, Sergei Kopyrkin, stated that this historical day connects Russia with the former Soviet republics and emphasized the importance of preserving historical memory. It is still unclear if Pashinyan has accepted the invitation.