Turkish Foreign Minister: We are seeking a road map with Egypt on bilateral relations, and we are communicating through intelligence
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that his country and Egypt are seeking to lay down a road map for their bilateral relations.
In a press conference held on Wednesday, after evaluating the performance of his ministry during the year 2020 which is nearing completion, Çavuşolu said that communication with Egypt at the intelligence level is continuing to strengthen relations, and dialogue is based on the level of the two foreign ministries, and stated that “communication between the two countries is also done through Their representatives are in Ankara and Cairo.
Çavuşolu revealed that he met his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, last year in international meetings, and stated that they stressed the need to work on a roadmap regarding the relations of the two countries.
On the recent visit of the Egyptian delegation to Libya, Çavuşolu explained that Cairo sent a delegation to Libya after a long time, and that this visit was not related to the visit of the Turkish Defense Minister, Hulusi Akar, to Libya.
He continued, saying, “It is not possible for Egypt to have knowledge of the Turkish Defense Minister’s visit to Libya.
It is natural for events in Libya to affect its neighbor, Egypt, similar to how Turkey is affected by developments in Syria and Iraq”.
And he continued, “We seek with Egypt to move according to the principle of non-conflict in international forums.
For example, Egypt raised its objections on some issues at the last meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation”.
Relations between Egypt and Turkey have been witnessing a severe political crisis since 2013 after the Turkish authorities categorically refused to isolate the Egyptian army of the late President, Mohamed Morsi, a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood and the first democratically elected Egyptian president, according to Ankara, which does not recognize the legitimacy of the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al Sisi.
Turkey considers Morsi’s removal a “military coup”, while the Egyptian authorities, which describe these events as the revolution, condemn this position, accusing Turkey of supporting the “Muslim Brotherhood” group, which Cairo officially declared a “terrorist organization”.
This tension has deteriorated in recent years due to the crisis in Libya, as Turkey is the largest external supporter of the internationally recognized Government of National Accord led by the President of the Presidency Council, Fayez al Sarraj, in the confrontation with the Libyan National Army led by Khalifa Haftar, who is supported by Egypt.
