Ankara and Cairo will focus on the recent developments in Syria, after the fall of longtime dictator Bashar Assad as well as in Gaza during the official visit of Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdellati to Türkiye on Tuesday.
According to diplomatic sources, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Abdellati will review bilateral ties in all fields, as well as the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council meeting planned for 2026. Libya, the Horn of Africa and the Sahel region will also be points of focus besides Syria and Gaza.
Fidan is expected to underline that Türkiye is in close engagement with the new Syrian government to establish stability and welfare in the country while he will underline joint efforts to fight the YPG/PKK as well as Daesh. Coordinated steps that can be taken with Egypt for regional stability will be handled.
The ousting of Assad ended decades of iron-fisted rule, but despite power now resting in Ahmed al-Sharaa's hands, Syria faces a fragile transition amid territorial and governance challenges. Military commanders appointed Sharaa interim president weeks after opposition-led forces overran Damascus.
On the other side, the two ministers will underline the need for a two-state solution in Palestine as well as the reconstruction of Gaza following months of bombardment by Israel.
Fidan will emphasize the need for continued cooperation with Egypt in transferring humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The year 2025 marks one hundred years of diplomatic ties between Ankara and Cairo. The latest regional turmoil and developments have brought the two countries closer, having resolved to a large extent the previous spats. Both Egypt and Türkiye aim to increase their trade volume to $15 billion within a few years by improving the infrastructure and business environment for joint venture projects and investments, eliminating any obstacles to trade exchange and investments.
With the first meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council held during the visit of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Cairo in February last year and the visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to Ankara in September 2024, the political will to develop relations between the two countries in all areas was confirmed by the presidents at the highest level.
After former President Mohammed Morsi was toppled, diplomatic ties were downgraded, but economic ties remained largely unharmed. 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.
Egypt is a leading actor in resolving the Palestine-Israel conflict and hosted talks with Hamas the day Erdoğan visited Cairo. It is also the only country with a safe border crossing for Gazans and delivery of humanitarian relief.
Türkiye, currently the largest aid provider to the Palestinian enclave, has delivered its shipments through the Rafah crossing in cooperation with Egyptian authorities so far.
