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Pakistan PM Sharif ‘gatecrashes’ Putin–Erdogan meeting after ‘40-minute wait’? Purported video goes viral
Shehbaz Sharif had been waiting with Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar for about 40 minutes before, growing impatient.
At an international forum in Turkmenistan marking 30 years of the country’s permanent neutrality, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
However, a video with the claim that Sharif had walked into a closed-door meeting between Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after his own bilateral with Putin was delayed went viral on social media.
Alongside a video of the purported incident, RT India earlier reported that Sharif had been waiting with foreign minister Ishaq Dar for about 40 minutes before he stepped into the room hoping for a brief exchange. Sharif left around 10 minutes later.
"Moment PM Sharif gate-crashed Putin’s meeting with Erdogan after waiting for 40 mins," the caption for the post said. HT could not independently verify the chain of events.
However, RT India later took down the video posted on X, while saying that there had been a “misrepresentation”. “We deleted an earlier post about Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif waiting to meet Vladimir Putin at the Peace and Trust Forum in Turkmenistan. The post may have been a misrepresentation of the events,” RT India said.
What happened in the Putin-Erdogan meet?
Erdogan told Putin on the sidelines of a summit in Turkmenistan that efforts to end the war were important, saying that “a limited ceasefire targeting energy facilities and ports in particular could be beneficial,” according to his office, AFP reported.
His comments followed a series of attacks on Russia-linked tankers in the Black Sea, some claimed by Kyiv. Ankara sharply criticised the strikes and summoned the Russian and Ukrainian envoys, warning that such attacks were a “worrying escalation.”
Turkey, which has tried to balance ties with both Moscow and Kyiv during the war, controls the Bosphorus Strait, a key route for Ukrainian grain and Russian oil moving to the Mediterranean.
It said the two leaders discussed detailed peace efforts on the war and the EU’s freezing of Russian assets during their meeting in Turkmenistan. Erdogan also said Turkey was ready to host talks in any format, according to a Reuters report.
