In a show of solidarity with the aggressors in Europe's worst war in 80 years, China's Xi Jinping will convene with his Russian and North Korean counterparts for the first time as Donald Trump and other Western leaders watch on.
The gathering of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un in Beijing this week is testament to the Chinese president's influence over authoritarian regimes intent on redefining the Western-led global order while Trump's threats, sanctions and tariff-driven diplomacy strain long-standing U.S. alliances, geopolitical analysts say.
The leaders' milestone meeting in the Chinese capital also raises the prospect of a new trilateral axis building on the mutual defence pact signed between Russia and North Korea in June 2024 and a similar alliance between Beijing and Pyongyang, an outcome that could change the military calculus in the Asia-Pacific region.
"We must continue to take a clear stand against hegemonism and power politics, and practice true multilateralism," Xi said on Monday, in a thinly veiled swipe at his geopolitical rival on the other side of the Pacific.
Following a summit in Tianjin on Monday where Xi and Putin pitched their vision for a new global security and economic order to more than 20 leaders of non-Western countries, their meeting with Kim is the next set piece ahead of a massive military parade on September 3 to mark the end of World War Two.
Xi has already held talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his first visit to China in seven years, resetting strained bilateral ties while Trump's tariffs on Indian goods rile New Delhi.
Even as U.S. President Donald Trump touts his peacemaking credentials and sets his eyes on a Nobel Peace Prize - claiming to have ended wars, holding a Ukraine peace summit with Putin in Alaska, and pushing for a sit-down with Kim later this year - any new concentration of military power in the East that includes a war aggressor 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 countries' official name.
While China and India have continued purchasing Russian oil, the North Korean leader has supplied over 15,000 troops to support Putin on Europe's doorstep.
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 soldiers have died fighting for Russia in the Kursk region, according to South Korea's intelligence agency, which believes Pyongyang is planning another such deployment.
Putin also told the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit that a "fair balance in the security sphere" must also be restored, a shorthand for Russian demands about NATO and European Security.
His visit to Beijing and expected meeting with Xi and Kim may offer clues to Putin's intentions, with Iran's president also due to attend Wednesday's parade, in a show of defiance that Western analysts have dubbed the "Axis of Upheaval."
