Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will make his first official visit to Turkey as president on September 4, reciprocating a visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Cairo earlier this year, as the countries are on a course of normalizing their years-long strained relations, the Haber Türk online newspaper reported.
Erdoğan will receive el-Sisi in an official ceremony at his presidential palace in Ankara.
According to the report the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza will dominate the leaders’ talks, during which they will discuss efforts aimed at reaching a ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel began pounding Gaza after Hamas militants carried out a surprise attack in Israel on October 7 that claimed some 1,200 lives.
Israeli air and ground attacks in Gaza have resulted in more than 40,000 deaths since October 7 according to the local health ministry in addition to causing massive destruction in the enclave.
Turkey, which has a good relationship with Hamas, is not directly involved in the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, while Egypt is part of them along with Qatar and the US.
Erdoğan and el-Sisi will also discuss the development of bilateral relations and trade.
A high-level Strategic Cooperation Council, established between Turkey and Egypt in 2010 to develop bilateral relations in political, economic and commerce, will also convene during el-Sisi’s visit to Turkey.
The countries, which have an annual trade volume of around $7 billion, are aiming to raise it to $15 billion. Egyptian businessmen are expected to accompany el-Sisi during his visit to seek trade opportunities.
According to Egypt’s State Information Service, the volume of trade between Egypt and Turkey was recorded $6.6 billion in 2023, compared to $7.8 billion in 2022, a decline of 15.7 percent.
Strained relations
Turkey’s relations with Egypt were severely strained a decade ago when el-Sisi, then Egypt’s defense minister, ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, an ally of Turkey and part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
At the time Erdoğan said he would never speak to “anyone” like Sisi, who in 2014 became president of the Arab world’s most populous nation.
Ankara has been trying to repair broken relations with el-Sisi since 2020.
The first signs of a thaw came in May 2021, when a Turkish delegation visited Egypt to discuss possible normalization.
In November 2022 Erdoğan and Sisi shook hands in Qatar in what the Egyptian presidency heralded as a new beginning in their relationship.
The two leaders then spoke by telephone after two devastating earthquakes hit Turkey in February 2023.
The normalization in relations was crowned by the two countries’ reciprocal appointment of ambassadors in July 2023.
Erdoğan, who once labeled Sisi a “murderer, oppressor and putschist” for his role in the 2013 military coup, called Sisi “my brother” during his landmark visit to Cairo on February 14 after an 11-year hiatus.
Ankara has also been working with Cairo since Hamas’s October 7 attack to persuade Israel and the Palestinian groups controlling the Gaza Strip to agree to a ceasefire.