Sharif Fumbles Earphones Again, Putin Can’t Hold Back Laughter
At the Tianjin SCO Summit, Sharif repeated his 2020 earphone mishap before Putin, sparking memes and mockery
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif experienced an awkward moment at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin when he fumbled with a translator earpiece during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a video that went viral on social media, Sharif was seen struggling to fix the earpiece as Putin patiently waited. At one point, the Russian leader chuckled, saying, “Prime Minister,” while gesturing to demonstrate how to wear the device.
This is not the first time Sharif has faced such embarrassment. During the 2020 SCO summit in Uzbekistan, he struggled with his earpiece in front of Putin, with officials trying unsuccessfully to assist. The incident had gone viral back then as well, drawing criticism from commentators and ridicule from rival political parties in Pakistan. US comedian Jimmy Fallon had even joked, “The surprising thing is that Shehbaz Sharif is the prime minister of the 220 million population of the world.”
Sharif was among the leaders of the nine SCO member nations who attended the summit on August 31–September 1, alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, his participation again became a target for meme-makers after a viral clip showed him waiting in a corner while Modi walked past with Putin, widely interpreted as a diplomatic snub.
The SCO’s strong condemnation of the recent Pahalgam terror attack, issued in the presence of PM Modi, was also seen as an embarrassment for the Pakistani leader.
Despite the awkward optics, Sharif sought to strengthen ties with Moscow during his meeting with Putin. He said Pakistan offers “supplementary and complementary” relations with Russia and acknowledged Putin’s “balancing act” in Southeast Asia, adding, “We respect India-Russia ties, that is perfectly fine. But we also want to build very strong relations.”