New calculations and mutual interests: What Egypt wants from Turkiye

After a nearly nine-year rift, the pace of rapprochement between Egypt and Turkiye is accelerating, as the two countries attempt to overcome points of disagreement, turn the page on the past and forge a political and strategic reconciliation that could bring significant gains for both.

Progress in some files, and obstacles dissipating daily, amidst dramatic regional changes that redraw balances and reassess accounts in light of Gulf reconciliation with Qatar, Saudi-Emirati convergence with Turkiye and improved relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

In just three months, the foreign ministers of the two countries exchanged visits three times – twice in Ankara and the third in Cairo – amid severe indications of the imminent resumption of ambassadorial exchanges between the two countries, after a diplomatic break in 2013, following the overthrow of the late Egyptian President, Mohammed Morsi, and Turkiye's harbouring of Egyptian opposition figures opposing the rule of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

Last Thursday, Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, visited Ankara in response to an invitation from his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, who visited Cairo on 15 March, after Shoukry had preceded him with a visit to Turkiye to express solidarity following the devastating earthquake in February that claimed the lives of more than 50,000 people in Turkiye and Syria.

The amicable atmosphere and rapprochement between Cairo and Ankara may be crowned with a summit at the level of the two countries' presidents this year, which would represent a qualitative shift in Egyptian-Turkish relations if Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, were to meet with his Egyptian counterpart after shaking hands on the sidelines of the Qatar World Cup in November 2022.

The two countries have been engaged in exploratory talks since 2021, led by Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister, Sedat Onal, and his Egyptian counterpart, Hamdi Loza, reinforced by the Turkish Charge d'Affaires in Cairo, Salih Mutlu Sen, taking up his duties last June and the participation of an Egyptian intelligence delegation in an international meeting hosted by Turkiye on the Libyan crisis last July.