President Donald Trump took aim at Chinese leader Xi Jinping as he hosted foreign leaders at a major military parade in Beijing, a reminder of the lingering tensions between the two sides over trade, tech and other issues.

“Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America,” Trump said on his Truth Social site, referring to the leaders of Russia and North Korea, without elaborating.

Trump also questioned whether Xi would credit the U.S. in a speech on Wednesday before the parade for the “massive amount of support” it provided to China during World War II. Trump added: “Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory.”

The Asian nation’s top leader ultimately didn’t directly mention the U.S., though he offered his gratitude toward unspecified nations that helped Beijing.

China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed the suggestion when asked for a response in Beijing. “Let’s hope this was meant in some figurative sense, not a literal one, especially since nobody is hatching any conspiracies,” he said in a video circulated by a Kremlin pool reporter.

Xi is using the military display along with a summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation leaders earlier this week to assert his nation’s presence on the world stage. Xi hopes to use that sway to erode American influence, especially in Asia, where China and the U.S. face a potential military conflict over Taiwan — the self-ruled island Beijing considers its own territory.

When asked if the parade posed a challenge to U.S. power, Trump earlier dismissed such claims. “I have a very good relationship with President Xi, as you know,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office hours before the event. “But China needs us much more than we need them.”

Separately, Trump expressed confidence that Beijing would not aim its defense assets at the U.S. in the future.

“We have the strongest military in the world,” Trump said in a radio interview with Scott Jennings, a conservative commentator. “They would never use their military on us — believe me, that would be the worst thing they could ever do.”

While Trump has embraced Putin since returning to office in a bid to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, ties between the two men have frayed as Russia continues to attack its neighbor.

In the Oval Office earlier, Trump said he had recently “learned things that will be very interesting” about Putin, adding that he was “watching very closely” to see if the Russian leader would relent and schedule a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“We’ll see if anything comes out of it. If it doesn’t, we’ll take a different stance,” Trump said.

China is using the parade to mark 80 years since Japan’s defeat in World War II. The highly choreographed spectacle was attended by dozens of heads of state and government, including those from Vietnam, Malaysia, Pakistan, Belarus, Iran, Serbia and Slovakia.

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—With assistance from Michelle Jamrisko, Jing Li and Yuliya Fedorinova.

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