President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday said Türkiye was ready for co-operation with Egypt to rebuild Gaza as he made his first visit to the country since 2012, vowing to boost trade with Egypt to $15 billion in the short term.
In a joint news conference after talks with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi in Cairo, Erdogan said the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza topped the agenda of their talks, adding that the two countries were evaluating energy and defence co-operation.
Erdogan arrived in the Egyptian capital yesterday, sealing a thaw in ties between the regional heavyweights. He was welcomed at Cairo airport by President Al Sisi and the two men exchanged a handshake on the tarmac, live footage of his arrival showed.
Erdogan, an outspoken critic of Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war, said on Monday that he would discuss with President Al Sisi efforts to halt the bloodshed.
Egypt has been hosting joint efforts with Qatar and the United States to broker a new truce between Israel and Hamas.
Egypt and Türkiye cut ties in 2013 after Al Sisi, then Egypt’s defence minister, removed president Mohammed Morsi, an ally of Türkiye and part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. At the time, Erdogan said he would never speak to ‘anyone’ like Al Sisi, who in 2014 became president of the Arab world’s most populous nation.
But relations have thawed since 2021, when a Turkish delegation visited Egypt to discuss normaliation.
By last July, Cairo and Ankara had appointed ambassadors to each other’s capitals for the first time in a decade.
In November 2022, Erdogan and Al Sisi shook hands in Qatar in what the Egyptian presidency heralded as a new beginning for their relations.
The two leaders have since met in several other countries, including Saudi Arabia in November and at the G20 summit in India in September.
Despite the long freeze in relations, trade between the two continued.
According to Egyptian central bank figures, Türkiye is Egypt’s fifth largest trade partner. Earlier this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said an agreement had been finalised to provide drones to Egypt.
Erdogan said his meetings in Egypt, as well as the UAE, would “look at what more can be done for our brothers in Gaza”.
“As Türkiye, we continue to make every effort to stop the bloodshed,” he told a news conference.
Erdogan has emerged as one of the Muslim world’s harshest critics of Israel for its bombardment and ground offensive in the Palestinian territory, which have killed at least 28,576 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Ankara in November recalled its ambassador to Israel, and has maintained intermittent communication with the Hamas leadership, who see Türkiye as a potential ally in ceasefire negotiations.