Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Monday, the second day of his critical visit to Egypt.

The Turkish minister’s visit aims to pave the way for el-Sissi’s expected visit to Ankara after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a similar trip to Cairo in February to fully normalize strained relations between the two countries.

El-Sissi received Fidan in the city of El-Alamein, where Türkiye’s top diplomat had earlier met Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

Normalization between Türkiye and Egypt accelerated after Erdoğan and el-Sissi shook hands in Doha at the World Cup in 2022 and gained further pace following the deadly February 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye, Erdoğan’s reelection in 2023 and the appointment of ambassadors to each other’s capitals last July. Since then, the two leaders met on the sidelines of the G-20 leaders summit last September and held conversations over the phone, particularly on the latest round of the Palestine-Israel conflict. Cairo and Ankara have backed opposing factions in Libya’s yet unresolved conflict, and also over maritime borders in the gas-rich Eastern Mediterranean. However, Türkiye has dismissed claims of a rivalry with Egypt in the region and reiterated willingness for more cooperation.