Cairo, March 18 (AFP\/APP): Turkey’s top diplomat said Saturday President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would meet to mark the end of a decade of estrangement between the two countries.<\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
Shoukry said there was a “political will coming from the presidents of our two countries… seeking to normalise relations”.<\/p>\n
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 neighbouring Syria.<\/p>\n
“It is possible that we will disagree in the future, but we will do everything to avoid breaking our relations again,” Cavusoglu said.<\/p>\n
Relations ran into trouble after the 2013 ouster of Egypt’s Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, an ally of Turkey.<\/p>\n
At the time, Erdogan said he would “never” speak to “anyone” like Sisi.<\/p>\n
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 then spoke by telephone after the February 6 earthquake.<\/p>\n
Cavusoglu on Saturday said the meeting between Erdogan and Sisi would take place “after the Turkish elections”, including the presidential vote slated for May 14.<\/p>\n
While diplomatic exchanges were once frosty, business never stopped: in 2022, Turkey was the largest importer of Egyptian products totalling $4 billion.<\/p>\n
But disagreements remain, with Turkey home to Arab journalists critical of their governments, in particular Egyptian media close to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group outlawed by Cairo.<\/p>\n
Cairo and Ankara also disagree over Libya, where Turkey has sent military advisers backing forces opposed to Egyptian ally Khalifa Haftar, the eastern based Libyan military strongman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cairo, March 18 (AFP\/APP): Turkey’s top diplomat said Saturday President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would 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 […]<\/p>\n
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