On the first day of his visit to Egypt, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the Arab League, on Sunday. The two men met in the town of El Alamein.
Fidan is scheduled to meet his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty, later on Monday. The minister was at the Rafah border crossing on Sunday after a visit to the port town of al-Arish. Speaking at the Rafah crossing, Fidan said he was standing only a few hundred meters from a humanitarian tragedy, “a genocide.” “Two million people are displaced (in Gaza), and some 40,000 women and children are martyred,” he told reporters. “There is no medicine, food and water. There are only our Palestinian brothers and sisters facing hunger. I call upon humanity to stop this massacre. If we can’t, we will be accomplices in it. We have to step up the pressure on Israel. Western countries, particularly the United States, should break their silence or remain a partner in this genocide,” he said.
Jamal Rushdi, the official spokesperson for the secretary-general, stated that the meeting witnessed an in-depth discussion on the regional situation in light of the severe risks involved in the current Israeli escalation, a statement on the Arab League’s website said. They also discussed ways to enhance relations between the Arab League and Türkiye in the political, economic and other fields, the spokesperson said.
Rushdi stated that Fidan and Aboul Gheit discussed the Palestinian issue in light of the continued Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip. The secretary-general stressed the need for the international community to protect the Palestinian people, especially the residents of the Gaza Strip, who are being subjected to an ongoing massacre by the Israeli forces, stressing the need to achieve an immediate cease-fire, urgently allow aid in, and launch a reliable path leading to the implementation of the two-state solution. The secretary-general of the league warned against the countries of the region being drawn into a spiral of escalation, and he was keen to express his appreciation for the moral and decisive Turkish position in supporting the Palestinian cause in international forums. The two sides also discussed the latest developments in Syria, Libya and Sudan.
Fidan’s visit aims to strengthen relations between the two countries and discuss preparations for Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s first visit to Türkiye.
During Erdoğan’s visit to Cairo in February, Türkiye and Egypt signed a joint declaration for a convention of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council led by the two presidents. The first council will meet in Türkiye. Fidan and Abdellaty will discuss preparations for this crucial meeting, which will involve the signing of some 20 cooperation deals, according to Turkish media.
Top diplomats will exchange views on bilateral, political, economic and cultural relations and the latest developments in the region, which has been a hotbed of conflict after Israel’s brutal aggression targeting Palestinians in Gaza since last October. Fidan and Abdellaty will also discuss long-term cooperation opportunities in energy, health care, tourism and the defense industry. Ankara and Cairo are working to upgrade the bilateral trade volume, which has neared $10 billion to $15 billion. Other topics on the agenda of talks are increasing joint work in media and communications and cooperation between the universities of the two countries.
Erdoğan’s visit capped diplomatic efforts in recent years to thaw the nations’ frosty relations. They mutually appointed ambassadors last year, and earlier this year, Türkiye said it would provide Egypt with armed drones. Erdoğan and el-Sissi fell out after Egypt’s 2013 military coup that toppled President Mohamed Morsi. After the coup, diplomatic ties were downgraded, although economic ties remained largely unharmed. Indeed, in 2022, Türkiye was the largest importer of Egyptian goods, totaling $4 billion (TL 123 billion). In 2023, Cairo allowed Turkish citizens to obtain a visa on arrival, paving the way for advanced tourism.
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. Since then, the two leaders met on the sidelines of the G-20 leaders summit last September and held conversations over the phone, particularly on the latest round of the Palestine-Israel conflict. Cairo and Ankara have backed opposing factions in Libya’s yet unresolved conflict, as well as over maritime borders in the gas-rich Eastern Mediterranean. However, Türkiye has dismissed claims of a rivalry with Egypt in the region and reiterated willingness for more cooperation.
