Not just Duterte: five other world leaders have awkward moments that went viral online

Philippine president’s impromptu action on a stage in Seoul set the internet alight, but he’s not the only world leader to have been caught on camera or video behaving unexpectedly. There’s Putin, May, Berlusconi … and Trump

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US President Donald Trump acts as if nothing has happened after appearing to shove Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic (centre) out of the way so he could assume a more prominent place in a group photo of leaders attending a Nato summit in Brussels – not his only awkward moment in front of the cameras. Photo: AP

Published: 7:41pm, 5 Jun 2018Updated: 12:25pm, 6 Jun 2018

A video of the awkward moment when Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte kissed a Filipino woman on the lips at a function in Seoul went viral this week. The 73-year-old asked for a kiss from the unidentified woman in exchange for a book he was handing out. After a slight hesitation, she returned the kiss – and sent the internet into a frenzy.

Duterte is far from being the only world leader to have had an awkward moment in public. Here are five more that spring readily to mind:

1. Vladimir Putin

When Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were at a trade fair in Hanover, Germany, they were confronted by a topless female protester who had some rather unpleasant words painted on her back. While Merkel chose to ignore the awkward scene and kept going, Putin found it amusing and later responded: “Regarding this performance, I liked it.”

2. Donald Trump

Speaking of awkward moments, US President Trump has had his fair share. During a group photo of world leaders at the 2016 Nato summit in Warsaw, Poland, Trump pushed away Montenegro’s prime minister, Dusko Markovic, to make his way to the front row, then chatted with the leaders next to him as if nothing had happened.