ANKARA: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egypt’s leader Abdul Fattah Al Sissi said they wanted to deepen their cooperation as they met in Ankara Wednesday to seal their mended ties.
“We will strengthen our cooperation in all areas,” said Erdogan, who visited Al Sissi in Cairo in mid-February when the two leaders said they had turned over a “new leaf” in their ties.
Both countries signed 20 agreements covering energy, defence and industrial sectors, aiming to boost trade from the current $10 billion to $15 billion in the initial phase.
The agreements mark a significant step towards repairing strained relations between the two nations.
Ambassador Ahmed Fahmy, Spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency, said Al Sissi’s historic visit to Turkey represents a new milestone in strengthening relations between the two nations. It builds on President Erdogan’s historic visit to Egypt in February and aims to establish a new phase of friendship and cooperation, both bilaterally and at the regional level, where many challenges necessitate consultation and coordination between the two countries.
The two leaders discussed ways to enhance cooperation in the energy sector, with Turkey seeking to import liquefied natural gas from Egypt and boost commercial shipping between the ports of Mersin and Alexandria.
Volume of trade
According to Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, the volume of trade between Egypt and Turkey reached $3 billion in the first half of 2024, down from $3.7 billion during the same period in 2023. The agency said that Egypt’s exports to Turkey amounted to $1.5 billion in the first half of 2024, compared to $2.3 billion during the same period in 2023, while Egypt’s imports from Turkey amounted to $1.5 billion in the first half of this year, up from $1.4 billion in the same period last year.
The value of Turkish investments in Egypt reached $77.8 million during the first half of the fiscal year 2023-2024, down from $103.2 million during the same period in the fiscal year 2022-2023.
Ankara and Cairo had cut ties in 2013 after Al Sissi, then defence minister, ousted Islamist president Mohammad Morsi, an ally of Turkey and part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Erdogan said at the time he would never speak to “anyone” like Sisi, who in 2014 became president of the Arab world’s most populous nation.
But relations have warmed over the past two years as their interests aligned on several issues, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“We want to improve our cooperation with Egypt in the domain of energy, especially natural gas and nuclear power,” Erdogan said.
Despite the decade of estrangement, trade between the two countries never ceased: Turkey is Egypt’s fifth-largest trading partner, while Egypt is Turkey’s largest in Africa.
According to the Turkish Presidency, the two men also discussed the possible sale of drones to Egypt.
On Gaza, they both called for a ceasefire and greater deliveries of humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian population.
Al Sissi also called for “a stop to the escalation in the West Bank”, where Israeli troops have for the last week been leading a military campaign.
Al Sissi said they also discussed Somalia, saying they agreed on the need to “preserve the unity and territorial integrity” of the country.
Ankara and Cairo have both recently signed military cooperation agreements with Somalia, which is in a standoff with the breakaway region of Somaliland after it signed an accord to lease ocean access to land-locked Ethiopia.
-- With AFP inputs
