Egypt's President Al Sisi travels to Turkey for first time to deepen ties

Egypt and Turkey continue to move closer after years of diplomatic tension due to Ankara's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organisation that is an enemy of the Egyptian government led by Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. 

With the aim of making further progress in this rapprochement, Al-Sisi has travelled to Turkey on his first official visit since becoming president of Egypt, closing the gaps of the past and ushering in a new era based on bilateral cooperation.   

This new era was inaugurated during a February trip by Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Cairo, where he pledged to strengthen the partnership ‘in all areas’. 

Now, months later, the two leaders have stressed their willingness to deepen ties, signing 17 cooperation agreements in areas such as energy, natural gas and nuclear energy.  

They have also pledged to expand their annual trade exchanges to 15 billion dollars (13.5 billion euros) in five years, up from the current 10 billion. In this regard, it is worth noting that despite the estrangement and tensions, trade between the two countries has never been affected by the diplomatic crises. Turkey is Egypt's fifth largest trading partner, while Egypt is Turkey's largest trading partner in Africa.   

In the military field, Al-Sisi and Erdogan also discussed the possible sale of Turkish drones to Egypt, according to Ankara. 

In addition to economic and commercial interests, relations between Turkey and Egypt have been boosted by a shared focus on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. In this regard, during the meeting, Al-Sisi and Erdogan stressed the need for a permanent ceasefire and the guaranteed delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave. 

As Erdogan said, Turkey and Egypt have ‘a common position on the Palestinian issue’, adding that both a ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid remain their ‘priorities’.  

The Turkish leader used the meeting to once again slam Israel, accusing the country of ‘condemning’ the people of Gaza to hunger and thirst. ‘Israel and its supporters are responsible for every innocent person who dies of hunger, thirst or lack of medicine,’ Erdogan added, maintaining his rhetoric of recent months.  

Al Sisi, for his part, stressed the need to ‘work together to prevent humanitarian crises, especially by tackling regional problems together’. ‘We must work more intensively, especially with our brothers in Gaza and Palestine. In this context, both Turkey and Egypt emphasised that an urgent ceasefire must be established as soon as possible,’ he added. 

Regarding his first official trip to Turkey and Erdogan's visit to Cairo in February, the Egyptian president said on social media that both events ‘reflect the joint will to start a new era of friendship and cooperation between Egypt and Turkey’.  

Egypt has worked during these months of war with Qatar and the US to try to reach a ceasefire that would also allow for the release of the more than 100 hostages still held hostage in Gaza by Hamas. However, negotiations have stalled following the killing of six hostages by Hamas, which has also rejected the latest proposals. 

Egypt opposes any Israeli presence on the Gaza side of its border, saying it would jeopardise the decades-old peace treaty between the two countries that is key to regional stability. 

Israel, for its part, has stressed the need to control the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow strip of land 14 kilometres long that separates Gaza and Egypt. Hamas has used this border, the only one linking Gaza to territory other than Israel, to smuggle weapons into the Palestinian territory from the Egyptian side.  

Indeed, since the Israeli military operation in southern Gaza began, the Israel Defense Forces have discovered numerous tunnels connecting the Palestinian enclave to Egypt.  Benjamin Netanyahu's government refuses to give up this important point, as it would, according to Jerusalem, allow Hamas to rearm in Gaza.