In what will be the first ministerial-level visit in nine years, Turkish Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati will travel to Egypt next month to attend an Islamic Development Bank meeting, state broadcaster TRT Haber announced on Wednesday.
The Islamic Development Bank Group is to hold its 2022 annual meetings in Sharm El-Sheikh June 1-4, 2022 with the theme “Beyond Recovery: Resilience and Sustainability.” The event will take place under the auspices of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Ministers of economy, planning and finance from 57 member countries of the bank will participate in the meetings.
Nebati is expected to meet with Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait during the event.
Turkey and Egypt broke off relations after the 2013 overthrow of ex-Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who was supported by then-Turkish prime minister and current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
They expelled their respective ambassadors and downgraded their relations that same year.
After its foreign policy left Turkey isolated in its region and beyond, Ankara launched a charm offensive in 2020 to repair ties with estranged rivals. But efforts with Cairo have so far yielded little progress.
Erdoğan said in late 2021 that Turkey will take steps to improve relations with Egypt and Israel similar to those taken with the UAE.
Turkey sought a rapprochement with Egypt earlier in 2021 despite supporting opposing sides in the conflict in Libya.
In March 2021, Ankara said it had established its first diplomatic contacts with Cairo since 2013, while the Turkish foreign minister in April heralded a “new era” in ties with Egypt.
The two countries held talks again in September as efforts continued towards normalizing their relations without significant progress.