Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held talks with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo on Saturday, in the first such visit after a decade of ruptured ties.
Cavusoglu and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry were expected to discuss a range of bilateral and international issues in a step toward restoring normal relations, according to statements from the two sides.
Ties between Turkey and Egypt were 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 following year.
Consultations between senior foreign ministry officials in Ankara and Cairo began in 2021.
Last month, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry visited Turkey in a show of solidarity after the massive earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
Mursi died in prison in Egypt in 2019.
Last month, Egypt’s government, which has been struggling to manage an acute shortage of foreign currency, said Turkish companies had committed to $500 million in new investments in Egypt.
Reuters