Egypt and Türkiye will work closely on regional issues, particularly on Libya and Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at a joint press conference with visiting Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Thursday.
“We want to fill the new page we opened with Egypt with joint projects and success stories,” Cavusoglu added.
Shoukry said Egypt is willing to develop bilateral relations with Türkiye because the two countries were connected by “a historical past” and the peoples from both countries will benefit from the rapprochement of Ankara and Cairo.
The Egyptian top diplomat also said that Egypt and Türkiye have a common understanding regarding Libya.
“We agree on the establishment of a government that will reflect the will of the people and preserve Libya’s territorial integrity,” he said.
Ankara and Cairo will also coordinate on the Palestinian cause, he added.
Bringing about permanent peace and stability in Syria is important to both Türkiye and Egypt, said Cavusoglu, adding the two countries have agreed to work closely and exchange views in this regard.
According to Cavusoglu, the two ministers also discussed plans to hold a summit between the presidents of the two countries and mutually appoint ambassadors.
“We will inform you of a joint statement in the coming period for raising the relations to the ambassador level. Until then, we will continue to take some steps,” he noted.
Shoukry’s visit to Ankara is part of the joint efforts of Türkiye and Egypt to improve their bilateral relations following a decade of political tensions and diplomatic rifts.
Their ties had turned sour since late 2013 when the two countries expelled each other’s ambassadors after former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was ousted in July of that year and his Türkiye-backed Muslim Brotherhood group was outlawed.
The two countries also sparred over a range of other issues, including the war in Libya, where they backed rival sides and maritime disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The symbolic handshake between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi in November 2022, on the sidelines of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, accelerated normalization efforts between the two countries.
After the deadly earthquakes jolted southeastern Türkiye in early February, Sisi quickly extended his condolences to Erdogan over the phone and sent relief materials to the quake-hit zones in Türkiye.
Cavusoglu visited Cairo and held talks with Shoukry in March. It was the first meeting between the two countries’ top diplomats in 11 years.
In a recent interview with Daily News Egypt Turkish Charge d’Affaires Salih Mutlu Şen said that the future of the relationship will be to the benefit of two important countries and to the benefit of their interests and will continue to flourish in line with the wishes of the two brotherly nations.
On the economic front, he indicated that Türkiye needs a lot of gas and in the future, it will continue to buy Egyptian gas. Egypt has one of the largest LNG facilities in the region and Türkiye has one of the largest regasification of the LNG in the region.
” can see a future where within ten years, the trade volume can easily go up to $20 billion. When you look at the figures for the last ten years, it keeps growing. We can say that Turkish and Egyptian economies are in general complementary,” he indicated.
Şen told Daily News Egypt that both countries genuinely and strongly support the holding of the elections as soon as possible. They both look forward to holding the elections. Türkiye and Egypt are both members of the International Contact Group on Libya and of course, they are always talking and they both support the United Nations’ efforts and forth holding of the elections to ensure unity, territorial integrity and political independence of Libya.
