Egyptian President El-Sissi Makes His First Visit to Turkey, as Relations Thaw

Ankara: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Wednesday is making his first official visit to Turkey since assuming power, after the two regional powers ended years of tensions.

El-Sissi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are set to discuss bilateral relations, the conflict in Gaza and escalating tensions in the Middle East, among other topics. They are also expected to oversee the signing of more than a dozen cooperation agreements to strengthen the relationship between their nations, including in energy, defense and tourism.

In February, Erdogan made his first visit to Egypt in more than a decade after the two countries agreed to mend ties and reappointed ambassadors. Erdogan declared that the two countries wanted to boost bilateral trade to $15 billion from the current $10 billion.

Relations between Egypt and Turkey, a long-time backer of the Muslim Brotherhood group, soured after the Egyptian military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi amid mass protests against his divisive one year of rule. Morsi was from the Muslim Brotherhood group, which has been outlawed as a terrorist organisation in Egypt.

In recent years, Ankara has stopped its criticism of el-Sissi's government, aiming to repair strained relations with Egypt and other Arab nations while seeking investments during an economic downturn. In November 2022, Erdogan and el-Sissi were photographed shaking hands at the World Cup in Qatar.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry then travelled to Turkey in 2023 to show solidarity with the country after a deadly earthquake struck parts of southern Turkey and Syria.

It is el-Sissi's first visit to Turkey since he was elected president in 2014, a year after he led the military's overthrow of Morsi. El-Sissi will be accompanied by a large delegation of officials and businessmen, Egyptian media reported.

Egypt, together with Qatar and the United States, a key Israel ally, has been working for months to try and broker a cease-fire and the return of the remaining 100 hostages held by Hamas. The negotiations have been dragged out since Israel introduced new demands, including lasting Israeli control over the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt and a second corridor running across the Palestinian enclave.

Egypt has accused the Israeli prime minister of obstructing the negotiations. It is opposed to any Israeli presence along the Gaza side of its border and says it would threaten the decades-old peace treaty between the two countries, a cornerstone of regional stability.

Hamas has tried unsuccessfully to have Turkey added as a guarantor in the cease-fire talks.

The war began with Hamas' assault into Israel on Oct 7, in which the militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. The overall Palestinian death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 40,000 people, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, and a quarter of the territory's residents are starving.