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Left waiting in a hall for 40 minutes, an irritated Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stormed his way into a closed-door meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkmenistan. What was meant to be a routine meeting with Putin veered off-script fast, turning into an unscripted drop-in after Sharif’s scheduled appointment hit an unexpected delay.
A video from RT India captures a visibly frustrated Shehbaz Sharif striding out of a hall and heading straight for the room where Putin and Erdogan were deep in a closed-door discussion. Flanked by security, Sharif pushed his way in — only for guards to halt him moments after he crossed the threshold, as the clip dramatically shows.
Another RT India clip shows Sharif, still looking impatient, seated beside an empty chair marked by a Russian flag. Still visibly annoyed, the Pakistani Prime Minister and his delegation sat stiffly, their impatience on full display as they waited for Putin to finally show.
Sharif's gaffe was swift and brief — a calculated gate-crash, a desperate reach for relevance after being left in the shadows. Within about ten minutes, the Pakistani Prime Minister exited the room as abruptly as he had entered.
Social media quickly pounced on the diplomatic slip-up, with several users mocking Sharif for losing patience and barging in instead of waiting his turn to meet Putin.
"After 40 mins of wait, even Zomato delivery guy gives up. Sharif still didn’t," a user wrote.
"Ignored him like a traffic signal ka bhikhari (beggar)," another said.
"Beggars cannot be choosers," a third one wrote.
Sharif was in Turkmenistan for an international forum marking 30 years of the nation's permanent neutrality.
Despite the diplomatic gaffe, the programme went on as planned, highlighting Turkmenistan's distinctive neutral status — a UN-recognised policy first formalised on December 12, 1995, and reaffirmed at the anniversary event.
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Published By:
Prateek Chakraborty
Published On:
Dec 12, 2025
