Türkiye on Tuesday announced Egypt would allow its citizens to apply for a visa upon landing in the country, in the latest move as the two regional powers put years of tensions behind and mend frayed ties.
The announcement comes nearly a month after Türkiye and Egypt said they would upgrade their diplomatic relations to ambassador level as soon as possible and reappoint their envoys.
The two countries withdrew ambassadors after relations were severely strained in 2013 after Egypt's then-army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, now the country's president, led the ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, an ally of Ankara.
Ties have gradually thawed since 2021 through consultations between senior foreign ministry officials in Ankara and Cairo.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and el-Sissi briefly met in December at the Qatar World Cup where they shook hands.
The rapprochement between the two countries is part of Türkiye’s efforts to build bridges and mend ties with regional countries. Türkiye has recently also repaired its relations with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Erdoğan has repeatedly said Türkiye hoped to maximize its cooperation with Egypt and Gulf nations "on a win-win basis," intensifying diplomacy after years of tensions.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in mid-March became the highest-ranking Turkish official to visit Egypt in over a decade. In February, his counterpart Sameh Shoukry visited Türkiye in a show of solidarity after massive earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people, marking the first trip by Egypt's top diplomat since relations soured.
"Our citizens who will travel to Egypt will be able to get their visas from the Egyptian border gates from now on," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
Cairo and Ankara have also been at odds over Libya, where they backed opposing factions in an unresolved conflict, and also over maritime borders in the gas-rich Eastern Mediterranean.
Egypt, which has been struggling to manage an acute foreign currency shortage, said in March that Turkish companies had committed to $500 million in new investments in the country.
