Pakistan PM cancels trip to Russia over regional clashes

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states leaders' summit in Astana on July 3, 2024. (File/ AFP)
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Updated 01 March 2026
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Pakistan PM cancels trip to Russia over regional clashes

  • The development comes as months of Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions have flared since last week
  • Russian media reported that PM Shehbaz Sharif was due to travel to Russia from March 3 to 5

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif canceled on Sunday a trip to Russia in the coming days, citing the “regional and internal situation.”

Sharif was due to travel to Russia from March 3 to 5, it had been reported in Russian media.

Months of cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan have flared since Thursday when Afghanistan launched an offensive along the frontier, with Pakistani forces hitting back on the border and from the skies.

And protesters took to the streets across Pakistan on Sunday after the death of neighboring Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israel air strikes.

“In view of the current regional and internal situation, the prime minister has decided to postpone his visit to Russia after consultations,” Sharif’s office said in a statement.

A new date will be decided after “mutual consultations,” the statement added.