On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Ankara. This unprecedented visit aims to solidify the reconciliation between Turkey and Egypt after years of strained relations, AFP reports.
The meeting comes as a response to Erdogan’s visit to Cairo in February, highlighting mutual efforts to restore close bilateral ties.
Relations between Ankara and Cairo were severely strained after Al-Sisi came to power in 2013, ousting Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, a key ally of Turkey and Erdogan. Following this, Erdogan publicly declared that he would “never” speak with al-Sisi.
Erdogan also sharply criticized the death of Morsi in June 2019, who passed away in court during a trial. “History will never forget the tyrants who drove him to death,” Erdogan said at the time, referring to Morsi as a “martyr.”
However, over the past two years, relations between the leaders have warmed, especially due to shared interests in several regional issues, including the situation in Gaza.
In February this year, during Erdogan’s visit to Cairo, he and al-Sisi signed several agreements aimed at expanding trade and diplomatic cooperation in the Middle East and Africa.
Despite years of diplomatic chill, trade between Turkey and Egypt has continued to grow. Ankara is Egypt’s fifth-largest trading partner, while Cairo is Turkey’s largest economic partner in Africa.
