Turkey, Egypt desire to make progress in areas under discussion

ANKARA

Turkey and Egypt have agreed to continue their consultations confirming their desire to make progress in areas under discussion and the need for further steps to facilitate normalization of their relations, a foreign ministry statement said on Sept. 8 after two-days long reconciliation talks.

The second round of consultations between the delegations headed by Ambassador Sedat Önal, the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, and Ambassador Hamdi Sanad Loza, the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt, was held in Ankara on Sept. 7-8, 2021, said a written statement.

They addressed bilateral issues as well as a number of regional topics, such as the situation in Libya, Syria, Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean, it added.

Both Cairo and Ankara have shown positive signs in recent months, and senior Turkish and Egyptian diplomats launched two-day long talks in Ankara three months after the first round of talks held in Cairo.

The two nations broke ties in mid-2013 following the military coup staged by current President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as Turkey became one of the loudest critics of toppling Egypt’s first democratically elected head of the nation, Mohamed Morsi.

The first political consultations between Turkey and Egypt were held on May 5 and 6 in Cairo with a joint statement that announced the continuation of mutual efforts for the reconciliation.

In an interview to NTV broadcaster, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said his country was taking “positive steps” to improve relations with Egypt.

“A process has been launched. Necessary concrete steps in line with a road map can be taken in the coming period,” the minister stated.

“We can start negotiations and make this deal. If they make this deal with us, they will gain more areas. But we even have not yet appointed ambassadors,” he said.

“There is no lasting friendship or enmity in international relations,” Çavuşoğlu said.

The minister also expressed the possibility of agreeing on a maritime deal with Egypt in the eastern Mediterranean, similar to the one struck with the Tripoli government in late 2019, if Cairo also asks for it.