ANKARA (Agencies): President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey wanted to deepen its ties with Egypt on natural gas and nuclear energy, after talks with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Ankara.
Speaking at a joint press conference with al-Sisi, Erdogan said the two countries had reaffirmed their will to improve relations in every area, including trade, defense, health, energy, and environmental matters. Ministers from both countries signed a series of agreements ahead of the leaders’ statements.
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 al-Sisi, then defense minister, ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, an ally of Turkey and part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Erdogan said at the time he would never speak to “anyone” like al-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: Turkey is Egypt’s fifth-largest trading partner, while Egypt is Turkey’s largest in Africa.
