Turkish top diplomat visits Cairo amid normalization efforts

ANKARA

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu paid a one-day visit to Egypt on March 18 amid ongoing efforts to mend ties between Ankara and Cairo.

Çavuşoğlu is the first senior Turkish official to visit Egypt in the last decade.

A statement from the Foreign Ministry announced the visit on March 17. “Upon the invitation of Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, our minister will pay an official visit to Egypt on March 18,” the statement read.

It added that the two ministers would review the bilateral relations with all its aspects and exchange views on regional and international developments.

Çavuşoğlu’s visit to Cairo comes a few weeks after Shoukry paid a visit to Türkiye to express support and solidarity following the deadly earthquakes that killed more than 48,000 people in 11 provinces. The two ministers had a meeting on bilateral ties in Adana Airport and discussed the road map for the normalization and exchange of high-level visits.

Türkiye and Egypt suffered from cold ties since 2013 after a military coup changed the government in the latter. Since then, ties between Türkiye and Egypt have been carried out at the lower level of charge d’affaires. Efforts to normalize ties were launched in 2021 but they did not improve at the desired pace.

A surprise meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in late 2022 during the opening of the World Cup in Qatar provided momentum for mending the ties.

Egypt has become one of the first countries to send humanitarian aid and other assistance to Türkiye following the earthquake. Türkiye announced its gratitude for the support and solidarity shown by the state and people of Egypt.

During Shoukry’s visit to Türkiye, Çavuşoğlu told the press, “We open new pages in our relations with Egypt.”

“We discussed what steps we would take to improve relations. The development of relations between Türkiye and Egypt is in the interest of both parties. It is also extremely important for peace, development and stability of our region,” he said.