Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif faced an embarrassing moment on Friday when he reportedly gate-crashed a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, after allegedly waiting for 40 minutes in Turkmenistan.
A video of the incident, now circulating widely on social media, shows Sharif walking into the room where the Putin-Erdoğan meeting was underway. Sharing the clip, Russian broadcaster RT India wrote: “The moment PM Sharif gate-crashed Putin’s meeting with Erdoğan after waiting for 40 minutes.”
In the footage, Sharif is seen striding past a heavily guarded door before entering the meeting venue. Earlier, RT India had posted another video showing the Pakistani leader seated on a chair, appearing tense and restless as he was allegedly kept waiting for over 40 minutes for his meeting with President Putin.
“PM Sharif waited for over 40 minutes for President Putin before growing tired and gate-crashing the Russian leader’s meeting with Erdoğan. He left ten minutes later,” RT India wrote while sharing the second clip.
The perceived snub comes just a week after Putin’s two-day visit to India, which many observers described as a significant moment in the India–Russia relationship. In a rare diplomatic gesture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had personally received Putin at Delhi’s Palam Airport, an act widely interpreted as a reaffirmation of the strong strategic ties between New Delhi and Moscow.
