Historic Trilateral Meeting in Beijing: Kim, Putin and Xi Demonstrate a New Power Architecture – What Does This Mean for the West?

For the first time in history they will stand together on one stage: Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. The North Korean ruler arrived in Beijing on Tuesday after completing the 1,300 kilometer journey in his armored special train. What is staged as a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II next Wednesday marks a turning point in the global power architecture. Three heads of state who together possess vast military capabilities and nuclear arsenals are sending a coordinated signal to the world.

It is Kim’s first trip to China since 2019, his first significant international appearance since the meeting with Putin at a Russian spaceport in September 2023. The fact that the notoriously reclusive dictator, who has undertaken only ten trips abroad during his 14-year rule, is traveling to Beijing now is no coincidence. The geopolitical shifts of recent years have created a new constellation that finds its public manifestation in this parade. Putin had already arrived in China on Sunday to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit and now to accompany the parade. The Kremlin announced that a meeting with Kim was “under consideration.” Observers consider it likely that Xi and Kim will also speak bilaterally - the mutual need for rapprochement is too great. China remains North Korea’s most important trading partner and lifeline; Kim knows that after the war in Ukraine he needs new partners if he does not want to be completely dependent on Moscow.

The Geometry of the New World Order

What is emerging in Beijing is more than symbolic politics. The deepened cooperation between Moscow, Beijing and Pyongyang has concrete effects on the global security architecture. North Korea’s massive munitions deliveries to Russia - experts speak of millions of artillery shells and tens of thousands of soldiers - have influenced the course of the war in Ukraine. In return, Pyongyang receives not only economic support but possibly also advanced military technology that could take the North Korean missile program to a new level.

China, which controls 98 percent of North Korea’s foreign trade and has remained Russia’s most important economic partner, plays a key role in this constellation. Beijing’s strategy is subtler than Moscow’s open confrontation or Pyongyang’s provocations, but no less effective. By maintaining economic ties with both countries, China effectively undercuts Western sanctions regimes and creates an alternative economic space that is increasingly escaping Western influence.

The signing of the defense pact between Putin and Kim in June of this year, which provides for mutual military assistance, has fundamentally changed the security equation in East Asia. Although China has not formally joined this pact, the demonstrative unity at the military parade sends a clear signal: these three powers see themselves as a counterweight to the Western-dominated international order.

Challenges for Washington and its Allies

For Western diplomacy this constellation represents a complex challenge. Donald Trump’s recent comments about a possible resumption of dialogue with Kim Jong Un appear increasingly unrealistic in this context. Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of the North Korean ruler, may have spoken of a “special personal relationship” between Trump and her brother, but at the same time made it clear: talks are only possible if Washington abandons its “outdated way of thinking” - in other words, the demand for denuclearization.

The European allies watch with concern as the global balance of power shifts. The practical cooperation between Russia and North Korea in the Ukraine war demonstrates the limits of Western sanctions instruments. While NATO countries struggle with shortages in ammunition supply, Moscow can draw on North Korean stockpiles that have been built up over decades. Particularly worrying is the development of new technology partnerships. Kim Jong Un’s demonstrative visit to a missile research facility before his departure, where he inspected new carbon-fiber composite rocket engines, underscores North Korea’s technological ambitions. These materials could make intercontinental missiles lighter and harder to intercept - a development that has direct implications for the strategic balance. Europe has slept through the major wake-up calls of recent years - from Putin’s annexation of Crimea to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine to its own security policy rearmament. Instead of acting decisively, there was long hesitation until the ammunition depots were empty and the options were tight. With the departure of Jens Stoltenberg, NATO also lost a voice that repeatedly forced Europe to be clear. His absence is more than palpable - precisely at the moment when Trump, depending on the form of his tweets, repeatedly questions NATO and Moscow, Beijing and Pyongyang demonstratively show common strength.

The military parade on Wednesday will, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, bring together delegations from 26 countries. But the absence of Western heads of state is telling. While Xi, Putin and Kim will stand side by side, the West remains on the sidelines - a symbol of the increasing polarization of world politics. What is manifesting in Beijing is not a short-term alliance of opportunism, but a structural reordering of global power relations. The three heads of state are united by more than just opposition to Western hegemony: they share a concept of the state that puts authoritarian control over liberal freedoms, national sovereignty over international norms.

For Western strategists the question is how to respond to this new reality. The traditional instruments - sanctions, diplomatic isolation, military deterrence - have failed or at least not produced the desired results. The parade in Beijing is also a triumph over this policy of containment. While the three rulers will review the marching troops on Wednesday, the world will witness a historic moment: the public proclamation of an alternative world order that is not defined in Washington, Brussels or New York but in Moscow, Beijing and Pyongyang. The question is no longer whether this new power architecture will establish itself - but how the West will respond to it. Moscow, Beijing and Pyongyang are closing ranks while the West appears divided and war-weary.