New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif found himself in an awkward position on Friday as he had to wait for more than 40 minutes to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Sharif eventually decided to ‘gatecrash’ a bilateral meeting that was going on between Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Sharif was due to hold bilateral talks with Putin on the sidelines of the International Forum on Peace and Trust in Turkmenistan’s Ashgabat, where leaders from 15 countries have gathered.
Videos shared by RT India show Sharif waiting for Putin, getting impatient and then walking into a closed-door meeting between Putin and Erdogan.
“Moment PM Sharif gate-crashed Putin’s meeting with Erdogan after waiting for 40 mins,” read the caption of one of the videos.
❗️🇵🇰 PM Sharif Waited For Over 40 Minutes For President Putin Before Growing Tired And Gate-crashing Russian Leader’s Meeting With Erdogan – RT Correspondent
He left ten minutes later. pic.twitter.com/tgUdPHT4eh
— RT_India (@RT_India_news) December 12, 2025
❗️The Moment PM Sharif Gate-crashed Putin’s Meeting With Erdogan After Waiting For 40 Mins https://t.co/r4L9XhA9IY pic.twitter.com/shi7YLMgmP
— RT_India (@RT_India_news) December 12, 2025
Sharif, Foreign minister Ishaq Dar and others in the Pakistani delegation reportedly waited for about 40 minutes before storming into another room where Putin and Erdogan were engaged in talks.
It turned out to be a brief exchange as Sharif left around 10 minutes later.
On the war in Ukraine, which is approaching its fourth year, Erdogan told Putin that efforts to end the conflict were important, saying that “a limited ceasefire targeting energy facilities and ports in particular could be beneficial,” according to his office, AFP reported.
Soon after Erdogan’s comments, a series of attacks on Russia-linked tankers was reported in the Black Sea, some claimed by Ukraine.
Turkey strongly criticised the strikes, summoning Russian and Ukrainian envoys and warning that such attacks were a “worrying escalation.”
Turkey has tried to balance ties with Moscow and Kyiv as it controls the Bosphorus Strait, an important route for Ukrainian grain and Russian oil moving to the Mediterranean Sea.
