Ashraf AboArafe
During his visit to Ankara today, Wednesday, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said:
I express my great happiness with my first visit to the Republic of Turkey, and my meeting with His Excellency President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as our two ancient countries share deep-rooted historical and popular relations, and have had strong political relations since the founding of the Turkish Republic by the founding leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Perhaps my visit today, and before it, President Erdogan’s visit to Cairo, reflects the common will to start a new phase of friendship and cooperation between Egypt and Turkey, based on their pivotal role in their regional and international environment, and in a way that meets the ambitions and aspirations of our two brotherly peoples.
On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi shortly after his arrival in Ankara on a visit that is the first of its kind in 12 years in order to consolidate reconciliation between the two countries after a rift that lasted more than a decade.
Photos published by the Turkish presidency showed Erdogan shaking hands with President El-Sisi upon his descent from the plane.
The Turkish presidency said in a statement that the Egyptian president’s visit comes in response to an invitation from his Turkish counterpart; In response to the latter’s visit to Egypt in mid-February.
She added that the two presidents will chair the first meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council, which was restructured according to a joint declaration signed during the Turkish president’s visit to Cairo, and continued that the talks will address bilateral relations and current regional and global issues, especially the Israeli attacks on Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories.
The statement explained that the council meeting will discuss joint steps that can be taken to further develop bilateral cooperation, and it is expected that the signing ceremony of agreements will be held after that.
