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New Delhi: At an international forum in Turkmenistan marking 30 years of the country’s permanent neutrality on December 12, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was slated to hold a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The plan, however, did not unfold as expected.
Footage shared by RT India shows Sharif inadvertently stepping into a closed-door meeting between Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after his own appointment with the Russian leader was delayed. According to accounts, Sharif waited for around 40 minutes in a nearby room along with Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar before deciding to walk into the venue, hoping for a brief exchange.
Sharif reportedly stayed for about 10 minutes before leaving.
The incident, captured on camera, quickly went viral and sparked online mockery, with social media users portraying it as an awkward diplomatic moment. One user on X wrote, "Putin does not want to waste his time on beggars," while another commented, "Even Trump did the same with these beggars."
The forum itself commemorated Turkmenistan’s long-standing policy of neutrality. The country’s status, unanimously recognised by the UN General Assembly on December 12, 1995, commits it to remaining outside military alliances, avoiding participation in conflicts except for self-defence and generally barring foreign military bases from its territory.
