Türkiye, Egypt launched process to appoint ambassadors: Çavuşoğlu

ANKARA

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu described their meeting with his Egyptian Sameh Shoukry as “open and sincere” and said the process has begun to raise the bilateral relations to the level of ambassadors.

“We agreed to increase our diplomatic relations to the highest level. We have evaluated what steps we will take in the next process,” he told reporters after visiting Cairo over the weekend.

The minister said they were planning to announce the work of upgrading diplomatic relations between Egypt and Türkiye after the planned meeting of the presidents. Still, they had declared that the process had started because the meeting of the leaders could be delayed due to the elections in Türkiye.

They have discussed several topics including energy, transportation, investments, logistics, education and culture, Çavuşoğlu noted.

“We agree that we are not rivals to each other in Libya and that we should actually work together for the stability of Libya. We will intensify our consultations on this issue as well,” he said.

“The Egyptian side wants Turkish companies to increase their investments in Egypt. Our trade has approached $10 billion. Due to LNG imports, the balance is in their favor, but we are not complaining about it,” said Çavuşoğlu.

Türkiye wants to make a longer-term LNG agreement, he said and added, “Thanks to our LNG terminals, we are currently exporting gas to southeast European countries and Balkan countries. Therefore, Egyptian gas can be exported to third countries via Türkiye.”

“We even want to sign a long-term contract on LNG. We made such an offer,” he added.

Stating that the two parties proposed the establishment of the Joint Economic and Trade Commission (JETCO) mechanism, the establishment of the Joint Chamber of Commerce and the organization of a business forum, Çavuşoğlu emphasized that the Business Council in the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) should be revived and that the Egyptian side attaches great importance to this issue.

Türkiye would like to increase cooperation on issues such as renewable energy and solar energy, he said.

ROSATOM builds a nuclear power plant in Egypt and Turkish companies, especially those working in sub-businesses, can contribute to the work there with their experience in Akkuyu Power Plant that is being constructed by ROSATOM, the minister noted.

Pointing out that Türkiye has serious investments in Egypt, Çavuşoğlu said that Turkish investments in Egypt exceeded $2 billion, and they discussed the problems such as long-term residence permits and visas of some companies.

Noting that the resumption of Ro-Ro expeditions, developing defense cooperation and increasing the dialogue between the soldiers were discussed, Çavuşoğlu stated that cooperation issues between universities and student exchange were also on the agenda.