In the first visit by a sitting Turkish leader in 12 years, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Egypt on Wednesday. His Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi personally welcomed him at the airport.
The two presidents shook hands on the tarmac as Erdoğan and first lady Emine Erdoğan disembarked their plane arriving from Dubai, where the Turkish president attended a summit on Tuesday. El-Sissi's personal welcome for Erdoğan, which is rare for a visiting head of state in Egypt, highlighted the importance of the visit for the country, which shares a common history but saw their ties strained in recent years.
Following the welcoming ceremony, the two leaders headed to al-Ittihadiya Palace where the Turkish leader attended an official welcoming ceremony, complete with gun salute. First lady Emine Erdoğan and a delegation of ministers accompany Erdoğan, including Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, National Defense Minister Yaşar Güler, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca and Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır.
Erdoğan said earlier that discussions with el-Sissi would focus on the Palestine-Israel conflict. Egypt has been hosting joint efforts with Qatar and the United States to broker a new truce between Israel and Hamas. An Israel delegation was in Cairo on Tuesday while a Hamas delegation was expected later Wednesday. Türkiye is a staunch critic of what it calls war crimes and genocide of Palestinians by Israel. It also arranged the evacuation of Palestinian patients from Gaza through Egypt's Rafah crossing.
The visit caps diplomatic efforts in recent years to thaw the nations' frosty relations. They mutually appointed ambassadors last year, and this month, Türkiye said it would provide Egypt with armed drones. The two leaders fell out after Egypt's 2013 military coup that toppled President Mohamed Morsi. After the coup, diplomatic ties were downgraded although economic ties remained largely unharmed. Indeed, in 2022, Türkiye was the largest importer of Egyptian goods, totaling $4 billion (TL 123 billion). In 2023, Cairo allowed Turkish citizens to obtain a visa on arrival, paving the way for advanced tourism.
Normalization accelerated after Erdoğan and el-Sissi shook hands in Doha at the World Cup in 2022 and gained further pace following the deadly February 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye, Erdoğan’s reelection in May and the appointment of ambassadors to each other’s capitals in July. Since then, the two leaders met on the sidelines of the G-20 leaders summit in September and held conversations over the phone, particularly on the latest round of the Palestine-Israel conflict that broke out on Oct. 7. Cairo and Ankara have backed opposing factions in Libya’s yet unresolved conflict, and also over maritime borders in the gas-rich Eastern Mediterranean. However, Türkiye has dismissed claims of a rivalry with Egypt in the region and reiterated willingness for more cooperation.
