- Relations between the two men have warmed over the past two years, their interests aligning on several issues, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza
ANKARA (Agencies): Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greeted Egypt’s leader Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Wednesday as he arrived in Ankara to seal their mended ties.
The two men shook hands as El-Sisi stepped off his plane in the Turkish capital, according to images released by the Turkish presidency.
After a decade of frosty relations, the two leaders said they had turned over a “new leaf” in ties in February, when Ergodan visited Cairo.
In 2013, Ankara and Cairo cut ties after El-Sisi, then defense minister, ousted president Muhammad Mursi, an ally of Turkiye and part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Erdogan said at the time he would never speak to “anyone” like El-Sisi, who in 2014 became president of the Arab world’s most populous nation.
But relations between the two men have warmed over the past two years, their interests aligning on several issues, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Despite the decade of estrangement, trade between the two countries never ceased: Turkiye is Egypt’s fifth-largest trading partner, while Egypt is Turkiye’s largest in Africa.