With the signing of 17 agreements reportedly, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi sealed his first visit to Ankara in 12 years.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan received the Egyptian president at Ankara airport at 2:00 pm accompanied by 21 cannon shots. During the Egyptian president’s visit to the Turkish capital, al-Sisi and Erdogan chaired the meeting of the Turkey-Egypt High-Level Cooperation Council.
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in his previous post in X, said that his and Erdogan’s visit to Cairo last February proves the two countries’ willingness to open a new page of friendship and cooperation.
In their joint statements, the Turkish president said that, in addition to Gaza, he discussed regional issues with his Egyptian counterpart, especially concerning the Eastern Mediterranean, Syria, Libya, Sudan and the Horn of Africa: “We are determined to strengthen our consultations with Egypt, with whom we have similar positions and objectives on many issues. We hope that from now on we will have closer cooperation. We will advance our multidimensional relations with an approach that will be mutually beneficial for all (ss Kazan-Kazan as he characteristically put it).”
Attack on Israel
The Turkish President paid special attention to developments surrounding the war in Gaza, stressing that Turkey and Egypt adopt a common position on this issue.
“Unfortunately, some countries are still complicit in the crimes committed by providing unconditional support to Israel. No deterrent measures are being taken to stop the Netanyahu government’s policy of massacres, which endangers the entire region, even the entire world,” Erdogan said, and at the same time stressed that “everyone should now realize the inadmissibility of such an image that hurts consciences. Preventing Israel from dragging our region into greater tension is possible only if the ambiguous policies are abandoned.”
Erdogan recalled that Egypt is mediating the ceasefire negotiations together with Qatar and the United States and said that Turkey supported this process through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the MIT intelligence agency.
He blamed Israel for its intransigent and prolonged tactics, then referred to the assassination of Ismail Haniya, the Hamas political leader, saying: “Finally, Israel has shown what kind of mentality it has by witnessing its negotiating partner. I would like to say here very clearly that we reject Netanyahu’s accusations against Egypt. Against all this, we have done and are doing everything we can to increase pressure on the Israeli government.”
Sisi: Cairo fully supports Turkey’s diplomacy
For his part, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the two countries should act together to implement a ceasefire and decided to work together to prevent humanitarian crises. “Like Turkey and Egypt, we stressed the urgent need for a ceasefire, an end to Israeli violations in the West Bank and the immediate realization of Palestine’s right to establish a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” he said.
He also stated that Cairo fully supports the diplomacy practiced by Turkey, stressing that “we must work more intensively, especially for our brothers in Gaza and Palestine.”
As for Libya, Al-Sisi said it is important to hold presidential and parliamentary elections, establish security in the country and withdraw foreign forces.
Al Sisi also said he agreed with his Turkish counterpart on the need to protect Somalia’s territorial integrity.
Joint Statement
According to Tayyip Erdogan, with the joint declaration signed after the talks in Ankara, the two sides confirm their willingness to promote cooperation in all areas, including industry, trade, defense, health, environment and energy. “Trade and economy are the strongest dimension of our cooperation. Over the past 10 years, we have continued to be among Egypt’s top five trading partners. We are resolutely moving towards our goal of increasing our trade volume to $15 billion in the next five years,” the Turkish president noted.
Turkey’s expectations regarding this meeting, which it described as historic, concerned from the beginning the war in Gaza, the Eastern Mediterranean, developments in Libya, energy, but also export agreements of the Turkish defense industry, mainly in unmanned aircraft, training aircraft and warship construction.
It is worth recalling that after the 2013 military coup in Egypt, relations between the two countries entered a period of crisis. Recep Tayyip Erdogan supported the ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, calling Al-Sisi a “murderer and coup plotter”.
When the ice broke
The ice between the two presidents began to thaw in November 2022, when they exchanged handshakes on the sidelines of the Qatar World Cup and the mutual appointment of ambassadors by the two countries last summer.
The Turkish President first visited Cairo on 14 February this year. Following the May 2023 presidential elections and Mr Erdogan’s re-election, information was released from Turkish sources that Al-Sisi was about to visit Ankara, a visit that finally took place today, 4 September 2024.
In early August, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visited Cairo and announced there that the first meeting of the Turkey-Egypt High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council would take place during the Egyptian president’s visit to Turkey and that he and his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelati, discussed the preparatory work for this meeting.