Cairo, Feb 14 (EFE).- The humanitarian tragedy in Gaza topped the agenda of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during face-to-face talks with his Egyptian counterpart on Wednesday, following more than a decade of tensions that began after the overthrow of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We will continue to cooperate and stand in solidarity with our Egyptian brothers to end the bloodshed in Gaza,” the Turkish leader said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a joint press conference from Cairo after a one-on-one meeting, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi welcomed Erdogan, who is visiting Egypt for the first time in 12 years, to “open a new page” between the two countries and “enrich bilateral relations to put them on the right track.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Egyptian president recalled that after a period of rapprochement between Cairo and Ankara in 2021, trade and investment relations between the two countries have experienced “steady growth,” making Egypt “Turkey’s first trade partner in Africa.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In this new era of our relations, trade will be the locomotive,” assured Erdogan, who revealed that investments worth $3 billion currently exist between the two countries, as well as the will to increase them, especially in the military, energy and nuclear sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relations between the two countries broke down in 2013 following El-Sissi’s coup against the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood government led by Mohamed Mursi, a group Ankara had protected after Cairo designated it a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Erdogan then branded the current Egyptian president as a coup leader and anti-democratic, and assured that he would never meet him or shake his hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, in November 2022, the two leaders shook hands during the World Cup in Qatar, an event that was interpreted as the end of the political rift between the two countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt in 1920 that seeks to establish Sharia law, and Hamas, the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip, is its Palestinian offshoot. EFE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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