Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that he will meet his Egyptian counterpart Abdelfatá al Sisi in the future, following a handshake between the two leaders at the World Cup in Qatar, the first major sign of a thaw in years of strained diplomatic relations.
«The process with Egypt has started,» Erdogan has assured in an interview with Haberturk TV Sunday picked up by Bloomberg. «After the ministerial-level talks we will meet face to face,» he said without giving further details on the possible date of the meeting.
The handshake in Qatar followed sporadic talks and efforts to improve relations amid a broader push to bridge divisions in the region as the U.S. gradually withdraws from the area.
Erdogan revealed for the first time that he spoke with Al Sisi for about 30 to 45 minutes during their Doha meeting and «both sides ended up happy with the meeting»
«If relations with Egypt return to normal, we can do the same with Syria,» Erdogan has even ventured, about a possible meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al Assad, a pariah for the Western community since the outbreak of war in the Arab republic.
Bilateral relations were severely damaged after the coup led by Al Sisi in 2013, which overthrew the Islamist Mohamed Mursi, who a year earlier had become the first elected president in the history of the African country after the departure from power of Hosni Mubarak in 2011 in the midst of the ‘Arab Spring’.
Tension between the two countries has also increased in recent years over territorial disputes in the eastern Mediterranean, where Turkey is Libya’s ally in its claims over territorial waters with potential hydrocarbon resources, while Egypt is more aligned with Greece.
