AMMAN — 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, AFP reported.
اضافة اعلان
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".
‘Important step’US National Security Advisor Jake
Sullivan welcomed Cavusoglu's visit to Cairo as an "important step towards
a more stable and prosperous region".
It 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.
"It is possible that we will
disagree in the future, but we will do everything to avoid breaking our
relations again," Cavusoglu said.
Relations ran into trouble after the
2013 ouster of Egypt's I
slamist president Mohamed Morsi, an ally of Turkey.
At the time, Erdogan said he would
"never" speak 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 then spoke by telephone after the
February 6 earthquake.
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.
While diplomatic exchanges were once
frosty, business never stopped: in 2022, Turkey was the largest importer of
Egyptian products totaling $4 billion.
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.
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.
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