Turkey’s top diplomat He said on Saturday that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will meet to mark the end of a decade of estrangement between the two countries.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking alongside his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry during a visit to Cairo, said Ankara wanted to “restore diplomatic relations between the two countries at the highest level.”
Shoukry said there was a “political will coming from the presidents of our two countries…seeking to normalize relations.”
Cavusoglu’s visit follows a trip by Shoukry to Turkey last month to show solidarity after the devastating earthquake that claimed tens of thousands of lives in Turkey and neighboring Syria.
“We may not agree in the future, but we will do our best to avoid breaking our relations again,” Cavusoglu said.
Relations soured after the 2013 ouster of Egypt’s Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, an ally of Turkey.
At the time, Erdogan said that he would “never” talk to “anyone” like Sisi.
But in November, Sisi and Erdogan shook hands in Qatar, in what the Egyptian presidency heralded as a new beginning in their ties, and the two leaders later spoke by phone after the Feb. 6 earthquake.
Cavusoglu said on Saturday that the meeting between Erdogan and Sisi would take place “after the Turkish elections”, including the presidential vote scheduled for May 14.
While diplomatic exchanges were once icy, business never stopped: In 2022, Turkey was the largest importer of Egyptian goods totaling $4 billion.
But disagreements persist, as Turkey is home to Arab journalists who criticize their governments, particularly Egyptian media close to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group outlawed by Cairo.
Cairo and Ankara are also at odds over Libya, where Turkey has sent military advisers backing forces opposing Egyptian ally Khalifa Haftar, the eastern-based Libyan military strongman.