Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will visit China tomorrow, September 2, to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose relations remain close after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the presidency said.

Vucic will also attend the military parade organized by Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the victory over Japan, along with about 20 delegations, including those from Iran, North Korea, and Slovakia—the only other European country that will be represented.

This parade, which is a demonstration of China's military power, is being held at the end of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

Created in 2001, the SCO aims to strengthen cooperation in the areas of politics, security, counterterrorism, and trade, as well as to counterbalance Western organizations such as NATO.

Serbia, which still hopes to join the European Union, remains close to China, which has invested billions of euros in the country, and to Russia, on which it is heavily dependent for its energy. It also shares with Beijing and Moscow a distrust of NATO since the 1999 bombings that ended the war in Kosovo.

The Serbian president, who has been facing a large-scale anti-corruption movement for 10 months, regularly thanks Russia for its help in fighting this "color revolution," which he believes is being fueled by foreign countries.

In May, Vučić attended celebrations in Moscow marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, which drew criticism from Brussels.

A year earlier, Chinese President Xi stopped in Belgrade during his European tour, which also took him to Paris and Budapest. | BGNES, AFP