Former Labor premiers Daniel Andrews and Bob Carr have been invited as guests alongside dictators Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un to attend a major Chinese military parade at Tiananmen Square to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Chinese state media Xinhua has published the list of former and current foreign leaders invited to observe the military parade celebrating China’s “anti-fascist” role in the war.

The guest list also includes Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. No Australian MPs will attend, and no leaders of Western democracies will attend, except for Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Australian officials from the Defence Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will attend the ceremony.

Carr, a former NSW premier, confirmed to this masthead that he was attending and paying for his own travel. He will speak at a Chinese Institute of International Relations event and said he would spruik Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s policy of stabilising relations with China.

“Why shouldn’t I go and talk to two think tanks and talk up the commitment of the Australian government to the relationship, and to quote the prime minister himself?” Carr said, adding that most Australians did not want war with the Asian superpower.

Andrews’ office was contacted on Friday morning. The office had not responded at the time of publication, but Chinese-language media claims both the former Victorian leader and Carr would attend.

secretive trip without media, which cost Victorian taxpayers more than $80,000. It was his seventh visit.