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Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un join Xi Jinping in Beijing

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Milestone meeting marks first appearance together in

public

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Closer ties may change military calculus in the Pacific

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Beijing to hold massive military parade on Sept. 3

(Adds details on Xi-Putin meeting and gas deal in paragraphs

9-10, Kim's travel plans in paragraphs 19-22, parade

preparations in paragraphs 23-24)

By Joe Cash

BEIJING, Sept 2 (Reuters) - China's President Xi Jinping

convened his Russian and North Korean counterparts together for

the first time on Tuesday, a show of solidarity with countries

shunned by the West over their role in Europe's worst war in 80

years.

Vladimir Putin hailed "unprecedentedly high relations" with

China and thanked his "dear friend" Xi for the warm welcome

during talks at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, while Kim

Jong Un's armoured special train snaked towards the Chinese

capital.

With Iran's leader also due to attend China's massive

military parade on Wednesday, Xi's diplomatic clout with a group

of authoritarian regimes dubbed the 'Axis of Upheaval' by some

western analysts, comes at a time U.S. President Donald Trump's

isolationist policies strain Washington's alliances.

Beyond the pomp, analysts are watching whether the trio

may signal closer defence relations following a pact signed by

Russia and North Korea in June 2024, and a similar alliance

between Beijing and Pyongyang, an outcome that may alter the

military calculus in the Asia-Pacific region.

It would also be a blow for Trump, who has talked up his

close relations with Putin, Xi and Kim and touted his

peacemaking credentials as Russia's three-and-a-half-year war

with Ukraine has raged on.

In a thinly veiled swipe at this rival across the Pacific

Ocean on Monday, Xi told a gathering of more than 20 leaders of

non-Western countries: "We must continue to take a clear stand

against hegemonism and power politics."

Xi also held talks on Monday with Prime Minister

Narendra Modi of India, which alongside China has been targeted

by Trump over its purchases of Russian oil seen as helping

finance Russia's war effort.

Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday called

the summit "performative" and accused China and India of being

"bad actors" by fuelling Russia's war.

As Putin and Xi met on Tuesday, Russia's Gazprom

and China National Petroleum Corporation signed a deal to

increase gas supplies and penned an agreement on a new pipeline

that could supply China for 30 years.

The leaders later retired to the Chinese president's

personal residence to continue unspecified negotiations with

their delegations.

ALARM BELLS

At a time when Trump has set his sights on a Nobel Peace

Prize, any new concentration of military power in the East that

includes Russia will ring alarm bells for the West.

"Trilateral military exercises between Russia, China and

North Korea seem nearly inevitable," wrote Youngjun Kim, an

analyst at the U.S.-based National Bureau of Asian Research, in

March, citing how the conflict in Ukraine has pushed Moscow and

Pyongyang closer together.

"Until a few years ago, China and Russia were important

partners in imposing international sanctions on North Korea for

its nuclear and missile tests... (they) are now potential

military partners of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

during a crisis on the Korean peninsula," he added, using the

diplomatically isolated country's official name.

Kim is an important stakeholder in the conflict in Ukraine:

the North Korean leader has supplied over 15,000 troops to

support Putin's war.

In 2024, he also hosted the Russian leader in Pyongyang -

the first summit of its kind in 24 years - in a move widely

interpreted as a snub to Xi and an attempt to ease his pariah

status by reducing North Korea's dependence on China.

About 600 North Korean soldiers have died fighting for

Russia in the Kursk region, according to South Korea's

intelligence agency, which believes Pyongyang is planning

another deployment.

Putin also told the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit

in Tianjin that a "fair balance in the security sphere" must be

restored, shorthand for Russia's criticism of the eastward

expansion of NATO and European Security.

His visit to Beijing and expected meeting with Xi and Kim

may offer clues to Putin's intentions.

For Kim, the parade will mark the largest multilateral

diplomatic event he has ever attended.

North Korea's state newspaper Rodong Sinmun published

photographs of Kim and his entourage on the train, including

Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui who has been involved in

Pyongyang's diplomacy on weapons developments for more than two

decades.

Before crossing to China early on Tuesday, Kim visited a

missile laboratory, described by analysts as a planned move.

The visit is geared toward "showing off (North Korea's)

status as a nuclear power" just before "standing alongside Xi

and Putin, which is intended to suggest support for North Korea

as a nuclear state," said Hong Min, North Korea analyst at the

Korea Institute for National Unification.

Weeks of preparation have gone into the

highly-choreographed 'Victory Day' parade, marking 80 years

since Japan's defeat at the end of World War Two, with downtown

Beijing paralysed by security measures and traffic controls.

Alongside the showcase of cutting edge military hardware

in front of an estimated 50,000 spectators, authorities will

release more than 80,000 peace doves and colourful balloons.