Carrying rifles and goose-stepping with their own choreographed manners, nearly 1,000 soldiers from 17 foreign countries marched past Beijing's Tian'anmen Square in a military parade on Thursday to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. [Special coverage]
It was the first time that foreign troops had been invited to participate in China's military parade.
Among them were Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyzstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Pakistan, Serbia, Tajikistan and Russia. Each phalanx was composed of about 75 soldiers.
Delegations from six other countries including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Fiji, Laos, Vanuatu and Venezuela also marched in the parade.
The troops joining the parade came from Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania and the Americas, covering all the main battlefields during the war.
All of the participant countries suffered from the war. Among them, Egypt, Russia and other former Soviet Union countries carried on bitter struggles against the Axis troops and took heavy casualties and losses during the war.
Foreign troops walked past the rostrum in the country's alphabetical sequence, except that Russia's phalanx appeared as a finale.
Chinese troops were invited and marched past Red Square in Moscow, also in a final sequence among foreign troops, during Russia's V-Day parade on May 9.
