Egypt And Turkey Draw Closer

Turkey and Egypt have begun slowly warming ties as they vie for regional primacy a decade after the Arab Spring

Cairo, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th May, 2021 ) :Turkey and Egypt have begun slowly warming ties as they vie for regional primacy a decade after the Arab Spring.

A Turkish delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal met on Wednesday with an Egyptian delegation led by his counterpart Hamdi Loza, AFP reporters said.

The two-day talks come nearly two months after Ankara established the first diplomatic contacts with Cairo since 2013, as part of wider efforts to mend fences with middle Eastern rivals.

Ankara and Cairo have both faced more US pressure since the departure of president Donald Trump, and both have been extending olive branches to their neighbours.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been sparring since the military's 2013 ouster in Cairo of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, personally backed by Erdogan.

Egypt's restoration of ties with Qatar in January, after a four-year Gulf blockade along with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, has also boosted efforts towards more regional diplomacy.

"What has become apparent to Egypt... is that it's difficult for any regional power to win through a knockout punch, but rather through points," Abdul Khaleq Abdallah, a political science professor in the UAE, told AFP.

"Meeting halfway is enough in this instance... but the situation is fluid, so it could flare up again," he added.