Egypt, Turkey pledge to cooperate as they mend ties

ANKARA: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egypt's leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said they wanted to deepen their cooperation as they met in Ankara Wednesday to seal their mended ties.

"We will strengthen our cooperation in all areas," said Erdogan, who visited Sisi in Cairo in mid-February when the two leaders said they had turned over a "new leaf" in their ties.

Ankara and Cairo had cut ties in 2013 after Sisi, then defence minister, ousted president Mohamed Morsi, an ally of Turkey and part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Erdogan said at the time he would never speak to "anyone" like Sisi, who in 2014 became president of the Arab world's most populous nation.

But relations have warmed over the past two years as their interests aligned on several issues, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

On Wednesday, the two leaders signed 17 cooperation agreements, according to the Turkish presidency.

"We want to improve our cooperation with Egypt in the domain of energy, especially natural gas and nuclear power," Erdogan said.

Despite the decade of estrangement, trade between the two countries never ceased: Turkey is Egypt's fifth-largest trading partner, while Egypt is Turkey's largest in Africa.

The two leaders said Wednesday they want to expand their annual commercial exchanges to $15 billion (13.5 billion euros) in five years from $10 billion now.

According to the Turkish Presidency, the two men also discussed the possible sale of drones to Egypt.

On Gaza, they both called for a ceasefire and greater deliveries of humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian population.

Sisi also called for "a stop to the escalation in the West Bank", where Israeli troops have for the last week been leading a military campaign.

Sisi said they also discussed Somalia, saying they agreed on the need to "preserve the unity and territorial integrity" of the country.

Ankara and Cairo have both recently signed military cooperation agreements with Somalia, which is in a standoff with the breakaway region of Somaliland after it signed an accord to lease ocean access to land-locked Ethiopia.