New Delhi Dec 12 :Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was left in an awkward spot at an international forum in Turkmenistan after waiting over 40 minutes for a scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, only to briefly walk into Putin’s closed-door talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and leave within minutes.
According to video and reports shared by RT and other outlets, Sharif, accompanied by Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, had been kept waiting in a separate room before he entered the Putin–Erdogan meeting room in an apparent bid to secure at least a short interaction with the Russian leader, but he exited around 10 minutes later.
The episode comes as Islamabad seeks closer ties with Moscow even as Putin’s recent high-profile visit to New Delhi and visibly warm engagement with Prime Minister Narendra Modi have highlighted Russia’s deepening strategic alignment with India, sharpening the diplomatic optics of Sharif’s brief and uneasy encounter.
