Hello to you and welcome to Newsout from the BBC World Service. We're coming to you live from London. I'm Sean Lay.

In Beijing, they've been commemorating the past, but do the Chinese also have designs on the future?

Dozens of countries were represented at a parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War,

which continued in Asia for three months longer than he did in Europe. President Xi Jinping used his

speech to warn against a world where might is right. Yet at his side was Russia's President Putin,

who's invaded and annexed part of Ukraine, and Kim Jong-un of North Korea,

whose troops fought alongside Russian soldiers in the war against Ukraine.

The BBC's China correspondent, Lor Bicker,

watched a parade both of leaders and of military might.

From my media pen here, just underneath the gate of Heavenly Peace,

which overlooks Tiananmen Square, I can see crowds of almost 50,000 people all dressed in white,

and they're holding aloft small Chinese flags to wave.

President Xi has already inspected his troops, and now we can see them coming up the avenue.

But even before this parade started, we had one of its most enduring images.

President Xi welcomed the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, the first time that a North Korean leader

has been at a military parade in Beijing since 1959.

And then he shook the hand of the Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

And together, all three led a group of around 20 world leaders up into the balcony,

above Mao's portrait, to witness this spectacle.

As members of the Army and Navy march past,

this is a choreographed display of precision and power.

You can hear each goose step echo throughout the seating areas.

...