Turkiye and Egypt have restored diplomatic relations and both countries have appointed new ambassadors in each other capitals.
In a joint statement released by the Turkish foreign ministry on Tuesday, the two governments said Turkey nominated Salih Mutlu Sen as its ambassador to Cairo and Egypt appointed Amr Elhamamy as its envoy to Ankara.
“This step aims at the renormalisation of relations between the two countries and reflects the mutual will to improve bilateral relations in the interests of the Turkish and Egyptian peoples,” the statement said.
According to international media reports, relations between Cairo and Ankara were severed in 2013 after then-military commander and current Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi led a coup to remove President Mohamed Morsi, a former Muslim Brotherhood leader, a political Islamist group active in multiple countries.
Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president, had the support of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his conservative Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which was close to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Since 2013, the two regional rivals have faced off on multiple fronts and their leaders have verbally attacked each other publicly, but they entered a rapprochement process in the 2020s.
Senior foreign ministry officials from the two countries have held talks since 2021, and rapprochement efforts between Turkey and Egypt took a turn after el-Sisi and Erdogan shook hands at the World Cup in Qatar in late 2022.
The two sides have held talks at the ministerial level multiple times in 2023, have sent each other friendly messages and have been openly negotiating on re-establishing full diplomatic relations.
