Turkish Foreign Minister will travel to Egypt for the first time in 10 years

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu will meet his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukri in Cairo tomorrow in the first trip by a Turkish chief diplomat to Egypt, in a new step towards restoring ties after the two countries severed relations in 2013. 

The Egyptian foreign ministry announced in a press call that Çavusoglu and Shoukri will meet tomorrow at 9.30 local time (7.30 GMT) in Cairo, followed by a joint press conference. 

The visit "is seen as an inauguration of the path towards the restoration of normal relations between the two countries and the launching of an in-depth dialogue on various aspects of bilateral relations and regional and international issues of common interest," the Egyptian department said in a separate statement. 

This is the first visit in a decade by a Turkish chief diplomat to Egypt, after the two countries severed relations in 2013. 

The reason for the rupture was mainly due to the coup that year by current Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who deposed then Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, with which Ankara has good relations but which Cairo considers a terrorist organisation. 

In recent years, however, Ankara and Cairo have held several talks to restore ties, and in late February Shoukri himself travelled to Turkey in the wake of the devastating earthquakes that left tens of thousands of victims in the Mediterranean country. 

Al-Sisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also engaged in a rare handshake in Doha during the World Cup in Qatar last November, during which they had "a very positive meeting", according to Ankara. 

The two countries spent years without diplomatic relations before a gradual rapprochement began in 2021, mainly at the trade level, but until now it had remained at the level of deputy ministerial meetings. 

Among the steps the two countries plan to take is the appointment of a Turkish ambassador to Egypt.