Outright drama was captured on camera during the inauguration of Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was supposedly denied a hug by the Turkish head of state.
A video is making the rounds on social media showing Sharif reaching out to embrace his Turkish counterpart, but Erdogan, for reasons unknown, denied the gesture of friendship.
The footage quickly went viral, mostly being circulated by Indian Twitter users.
Ties between Turkiye and Pakistan have witnessed several mishaps recently, as the Sharif government is trying to handle both a political crisis and economic woes that his country has faced.
When Turkiye was rocked by deadly earthquakes in February, Sharif was slated to visit the nation to show his solidarity with the Turkish people. However, the visit was abruptly cancelled.
At the same time, several media outlets speculated that the humanitarian aid Pakistan sent to Turkiye to help deal with the devastating consequences of the quakes turned out to be the same aid Ankara had provided to Pakistan during the terrible floods that hit the nation back in 2020. No official comments were issued to either confirm or deny the alleged controversy.