Erdogan’s milestone visit to strengthen ties with Egypt
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey was ready to cooperate with Egypt to rebuild Gaza as he made his first visit to the country since 2012.
Erdogan and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held a joint news conference on Wednesday in Cairo after bilateral talks, taking a big step toward rebuilding relations between the regional powers.
Erdogan said the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza topped the agenda of their talks. “We will continue to cooperate and stand in solidarity with our Egyptian brothers to put an end to the bloodshed in Gaza,” he said, adding Turkey was determined to step up talks with Egypt at all levels in order to establish peace and stability in the region.
President Erdogan also vowed to boost trade with Egypt to $15 billion in the short term, adding that the two countries were evaluating energy and defense cooperation.
“I’d like to emphasize the continued connection between our peoples, over the past ten years, while our trade and investment relationship saw steady growth,” Sisi said.
The visit caps diplomatic efforts in recent years to thaw the nations’ frosty relations. They mutually appointed ambassadors last year, and this month Turkey said it would provide Egypt with armed drones.
Relations between Ankara and Cairo broke down in 2013 after Egypt’s then-army chief Sisi led the ouster of the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi, an ally of Turkey who had become Egypt’s first democratically elected president the year before.
Mursi died in prison in Egypt in 2019. Other senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood are jailed in Egypt or have fled abroad, including to Turkey. The Brotherhood remains outlawed in Egypt.
Sisi greeted Erdogan as he emerged from his plane in Cairo with his wife and they conversed as they walked along a red carpet amid fanfare, live television footage showed.
The Turkish television networks interrupted their regular programming to broadcast live coverage of the arrival of the Turkish president in the Egyptian capital.
According to a draft program, Sisi and Erdogan were to hold bilateral talks before a meeting between the two delegations, with a formal dinner planned.
Erdogan has sought to ease tensions with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Israel since 2021 – though since October he has publicly sniped with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s devastating war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
The Turkish president may visit the border crossing of Rafah during his stay in Egypt. The two leaders are expected to send messages primarily regarding the promotion of humanitarian aid through the Rafah gateway.
Egypt, Israel, Qatar and the United States held inconclusive talks on Tuesday in search of a Gaza truce agreement. Cairo has made clear it will not allow an exodus of Gaza refugees over its border with the shattered Palestinian territory.
Other key topics in the discussions between the two presidents were Libya, where the two countries support opposing factions in the civil war, the sale of Turkish unmanned aerial vehicles in Egypt, and bilateral trade.
For Ankara, Erdogan’s visit to Cairo represents the culmination of Turkey’s efforts to “return” to the Middle East, following a prolonged period of tensions with the majority of countries in the region.
[Reuters/Kathimerini]
