High Egyptian and Turkish diplomats maintain talks in Cairo amid enhancing ties

CAIRO: Turkiye’s Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held talks together with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo on Saturday, within the first such go to after a decade of ruptured ties.

Cavusoglu and Egyptian Overseas Minister Sameh Shoukry had been anticipated to debate a variety of bilateral and worldwide points in a step in the direction of restoring regular relations, in keeping with statements from the 2 sides.

Ties between Turkiye and Egypt had been severely strained after Egypt’s then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi, an ally of Ankara, in 2013. Sisi was elected president the next yr.

The 2 nations have additionally been at odds lately over Libya, the place they backed opposing factions in an unresolved battle, and likewise over maritime borders within the gas-rich Japanese Mediterranean.

Consultations between senior overseas ministry officers in Ankara and Cairo started in 2021, amid a push by Turkiye to ease tensions with Egypt, the UAE, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Turkiye’s high diplomat to go to Egypt as relations ease

As a part of that tentative reconciliation, Ankara requested Egyptian opposition TV channels working in Turkiye to average their criticism of Egypt.

Final month, Egyptian Overseas Minister Sameh Shoukry visited Turkiye in a present of solidarity after the large earthquakes that killed greater than 50,000 folks in Turkiye and Syria.

Mursi died in jail in Egypt in 2019. Different senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood are jailed in Egypt or have fled overseas, and the group stays outlawed.

Final month, Egypt’s authorities, which has been struggling to handle an acute scarcity of overseas foreign money, stated Turkish corporations had dedicated to $500 million in new investments in Egypt.