The Turkish government said Monday that it could appoint «in the coming months» its new ambassador to Egypt, amid the process of rapprochement between Ankara and Cairo after years of diplomatic tensions following the 2013 overthrow of then Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has indicated that «political consultations at the level of deputy ministers could be agreed soon» and added that «ambassadors could be appointed in the coming months,» Turkish state news agency Anatolia reported.
Cavusoglu’s remarks came a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated that he plans to meet in the future with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdelfatá al Sisi, following their greeting on the occasion of the start of the World Cup in Qatar.
Bilateral relations were severely damaged following 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 Hosni Mubarak’s departure from power in 2011 amid 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.
