CAIRO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the Egyptian capital on Wednesday on his first visit since 2012, sealing a thaw in ties between the regional heavyweights.
Erdogan was welcomed at Cairo airport by his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the two men exchanged a handshake on the tarmac, live footage of his arrival showed. Erdogan, an outspoken critic of Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war, said Monday that he would discuss with al-Sisi efforts to halt the bloodshed.
Egypt has been hosting joint efforts with Qatar and the United States to broker a new truce between Israel and Hamas. An Israel delegation was in Cairo on Tuesday while a Hamas delegation was expected later Wednesday.
Egypt and Turkey cut ties in 2013 after al-Sisi, then Egypt’s defense minister, ousted president Mohammed Morsi, an ally of Turkey and part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. At the time, Erdogan said he would never speak to “anyone” like al-Sisi, who in 2014 became president of the Arab world’s most populous nation. But relations have thawed since 2021, when a Turkish delegation visited Egypt to discuss normalization.
By last July, Cairo and Ankara had appointed ambassadors to each other’s capitals for the first time in a decade. In November 2022, Erdogan and al-Sisi shook hands in Qatar in what the Egyptian presidency heralded as a new beginning for their relations.
The two leaders have since met in several other countries, including Saudi Arabia in November and at the G20 summit in India in September. Despite the long freeze in relations, trade between the two continued. According to Egyptian central bank figures, Turkey is Egypt’s fifth largest trade partner.
Earlier this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said an agreement had been finalized to provide drones to Egypt. Erdogan said his meetings in Egypt, as well as the United Arab Emirates, would “look at what more can be done for our brothers in Gaza.” As Turkey, we continue to make every effort to stop the bloodshed,” he told a news conference.
Erdogan has emerged as one of the Muslim world’s harshest critics of Israel for its bombardment and ground offensive in the Palestinian territory, which have killed at least 28,576 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Istanbul served as a base for Hamas political leaders before the October 7 attack. The NATO member asked the Hamas chiefs to leave after some were captured on video celebrating the unprecedented attack. Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 Israelis, according to official Israeli figures. Ankara in November recalled its ambassador to Israel, and has maintained intermittent communication with the Hamas leadership, who see Turkey as a potential ally in ceasefire negotiations.
Increasing the trade volume between the two countries is high on the agenda of the two leaders’ meeting. Turkey and Egypt’s trade volume is almost $7bn. Egypt’s sales to Turkey are worth $3.65bn, while the latter’s exports to the former stand at $3.34bn.
Currently, Turkey mainly imports plastic and plastic products, mineral fuel and oil, artificial textile materials and inorganic chemicals from Egypt. Egypt mainly buys iron and steel, machinery, and mechanical and automotive parts from Turkey.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says Egypt intends to buy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Turkey. “The process of normalising our relations with Egypt has been largely completed,” said Fidan in a televised interview earlier this month.
“Normalisation in our relations is important for Egypt to have certain technologies; we have an agreement to provide unmanned air vehicles and other technologies [to Egypt],” Fidan said without further elaborating.
He also said that cooperation with Egypt is important within the scope of the Israel-Palestine issue and security in the Mediterranean. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Israel’s war on Gaza will top the agenda in his talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
“During the talks to be held in Egypt, we will look into what more we can do for our brothers in Gaza,” he said. “As Turkey, we will continue to make every effort to stop the bloodshed. “We will discuss various issues, including economy, trade, tourism, energy and defence, with Mr Sisi,” Erdogan added.
Cairo and Ankara have had many areas of disagreement, including sharing hydrocarbon resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, the conflict in Libya, the war in Syria and a diplomatic crisis in the Gulf.
Turkey supported Qatar after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and trade ties with Doha in June 2017 in an incident that forged clear rival regional alliances.
The four Arab countries, backed by various additional allies, imposed a sea, land and air blockade on Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting “terrorism”, a claim the Gulf state has repeatedly denied. –Agencies
