Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday in Turkmenistan to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Their meeting was unexpectedly interrupted by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who demanded an audience with Putin to secure his support against India and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Erdogan held a “thorough exchange of views on Ukrainian affairs” while meeting in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, on the sidelines of the International Forum for Peace and Trust.
The forum assumed something of an ironic air, given that Putin and other attendees, such as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and a special envoy from China, have all launched unprovoked wars of aggression in recent years.
The event is held in Turkmenistan because it is the only country in the world to be granted a permanent status of “neutrality” by the United Nations, a recognition conferred by the U.N. General Assembly in 1995. The forum was held on Friday because December 12 was proclaimed as the “International Day of Neutrality” by the United Nations in 2017.
According to the Kremlin, the meeting between Putin, Erdogan, and their respective delegations followed up on a telephone conversation between the Russian and Turkish leaders on November 24, which was focused on the Ukraine conflict. Erdogan met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a week before that call and has been eager to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
“At a time of increasing uncertainty, conflict and fragility on a global scale, we need to shoulder responsibility to establish international dialogue, cooperation, trust and peace,” Erdogan said at the forum in Ashgabat.
Erdogan said Turkey has a unique “responsibility that our history, geography and civilization have placed upon us” to serve as a mediator, and will use “all our might to ensure that peace and dialogue prevail.”
“We are ready to provide concrete support for diplomatic initiatives aimed at a ceasefire and peace,” he said of the conflict in Ukraine.
Erdogan proposed a “limited ceasefire” against ports and energy facilities by both sides in the Russia-Ukraine war, alluding to Ukrainian attacks on Russian tankers in the Black Sea off the Turkish coast. Turkey viewed the attacks as a “worrying escalation” in the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Erdogan has already approached him with his proposal for a limited ceasefire and he was agreeable.
“President Erdogan mentioned this to me. I told him we would support it. He wanted to organize a corresponding meeting – initially at team level, then at the leaders’ level. I told him we are ready,” he said.
“From what I understand, the Russians simply told them that they would not agree to any ceasefire unless an agreement is signed,” Zelensky added.
The meeting between Putin and Erdogan took a bizarre turn when Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, visibly annoyed after waiting outside the meeting room for his chance to speak with Putin, forced his way through the door.
Sharif was escorted back out of the meeting room by security guards about ten minutes later, apparently without getting his desired interaction with Putin:
Media outlets in Pakistan’s rival India found the incident very amusing, gleefully relaying social media comments mocking Sharif for behaving like a child or “beggar.”
“Sharif’s gaffe was swift and brief – a calculated gate-crash, a desperate reach for relevance after being left in the shadows,” chortled India Today.
India’s Firstpost suggested Sharif blew his stack because he has seen India cozying up to Russia over the past few months and he interpreted Putin leaving him to cool his heels in a waiting room for 40 minutes as a sign that Pakistan is out of favor in Moscow.
This realignment comes as Pakistan is fighting increasingly severe border skirmishes with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, a conflict that Putin could potentially use his influence in Kabul to defuse. India, which has developed a close diplomatic and trade relationship with the Taliban over the past year, openly supports the Taliban against Pakistan.
Firstpost noted Sharif made a rather desperate play for Putin’s affections at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in September, unsuccessfully attempting to squeeze into a collegial conversation between Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping. The image of Pakistan getting pushed out of the Chinese-Russian axis to make room for India was undeniably potent.
