After over a decade of regional political dispute, the ice finally broke; the Turkish-Egyptian ties embarked upon an advanced stage of reconciliation after axing most of the issues and impurities which were of a sensitive nature to Egypt, thus, standing in the way of restoring the cooperation path to its previous era; especially the rapprochement that took place in recent months regarding the Libya file, maritime borders in the eastern Mediterranean, energy distribution, and other matters that were pending between the two countries.
This came after the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s visit a few days ago to Cairo, the first of its kind by a Turkish official of this level since the Turkish and Egyptian Presidents met on the sidelines during their attendance at the opening of the World Cup in Qatar last November; a meeting that ended the stalemate situation and the tension in relations between the two countries since 2013.
Experts believe that the Turkish Foreign Minister’s visit to Egypt marks the inauguration of restoring normal relations between the two countries and commencing an in-depth dialogue on various aspects of bilateral relations and regional and international issues of common interest, intending to find common ground that both countries can stand on and fulfill the interests of the two countries and their people.
The current development and progress in Turkish-Egyptian relations can undoubtedly be attributed to eliminating the obstacles on the way of restoring normalcy after a series of bilateral contacts and meetings that were limited primarily to the security scope between officials in the General Intelligence Service of both countries, in addition to two rounds of talks that took place in 2021 between the two countries’ Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs; the first being in Cairo, and the second in Ankara.
It is well known that since there have been talks about reconciliation efforts, Ankara has shown great interest in resuming relations and achieving considerable political and economic rapprochement.
In conclusion, we can say that the Egyptian leadership, as is the case with Ankara, also wants to rebuild political and economic bridges and close the curtain on the tension that began almost a decade ago, but based on rebuilding trust first, as it considers all the possible outcomes of rapprochement, including the impact on its
foreign relations. For example, Egyptian-Greek relations, where improving ties with Ankara can in turn lead to a decline in relations with Athens, which Cairo considers a vital ally in the Mediterranean, and therefore, Cairo seeks balance. As for Ankara, the nature of its fast-moving and active diplomacy tends to use this normalization well to control the transformation and delicate balance during this transitional period for the region, in addition to its solid understanding of the tremendous advantage that this partnership will offer in mitigating regional polarization, as Egypt can turn into a bridge linking the regional axes with which Türkiye wants rapprochement instead of being an impregnable barrier in its face.