Egypt and Turkey plan to upgrade their growing relations to a “strategic partnership”, with full co-operation on making weapons, sharing intelligence and deepening economic ties, sources told The National.
They spoke ahead of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's arrival in Cairo on Wednesday. He travelled from Saudi Arabia where he held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In Egypt, Mr Erdogan was to discuss with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi a plan to make weapons at a military industrial complex to be built on the country's Mediterranean coast, the sources said.
The complex would be made with the help of Turkey's expertise on drones, on which Ankara has made significant technological advances, they said. It would also build warships.
“Relations between Egypt and Turkey already are very close, both on bilateral and regional co-operation levels,” said one of the sources. “But the two sides will be working towards transforming it into a strategic partnership during Erdogan's visit.”
A joint statement issued after talks between Mr El Sisi and Mr Erdogan pledged closer co-operation in a wide range of areas, including increasing bilateral trade from the current $9 billion annually to $15 billion by 2029. Egypt is Turkey's largest trade partner in Africa.
“The two sides welcome the signing of memos of understanding that include co-operation in the fields of defence, investment, trade, agriculture, health, youth and sports and social protection,” said the statement. The memos were signed after the two leaders' talks.
Relations between Egypt and Nato member Turkey, both US allies, have rapidly evolved since the two regional heavyweights ended a decade of tension over Ankara's support for Egypt's Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, who was toppled by the military in 2013 when Mr El Sisi was defence minister.
But the fraught years did not affect the relatively large volume of trade and the large volume of Turkish investments in Egypt.
Mr Erdogan co-chaired with Mr El Sisi the second meeting of the High Level Turkey–Egypt Strategic Co-operation Council, according to the Egyptian presidency.
Mr Erdogan and his Egyptian host also took part in a Turkish–Egyptian business forum.
"The two nations share the longest coastline in the East Mediterranean as well as a desire to increase co-operation in the fields of trade, maritime transport, safe shipping and maritime security," Mr Erdogan told a news conference.
During the tense period between the two countries, they sided with rival factions in Libya, while Cairo accused Ankara of supporting militant groups in the Middle East and meddling in the affairs of Arab nations. It regarded with suspicion Turkey's growing influence in Africa, where Egypt has traditionally exercised the role of big brother and practised soft diplomacy.
Things have dramatically changed now, with Cairo and Ankara siding with the national army in Sudan in its nearly three-year war against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Turkey also helped Egypt to build bridges with the Tripoli-based government in Libya after years of supporting the rival administration in the country's east.
The joint statement said both nations support Sudan's national institutions – political parlance for the armed forces – and “categorically reject the creation of parallel governing structures”, in a reference to the RSF's creation of a separate government.
The two leaders later told reporters they wanted to see an end to the nearly three-year-old conflict in Sudan, starting with a humanitarian truce followed by a longer one and the launch of a "comprehensive political process."
The statement also stated the two nations' support for the “territorial integrity and safety of Somalia” – a reference to Israel's recognition of the breakaway region of Somaliland late last year. That move was globally condemned and raised suspicions that Israel wanted to secure a foothold on the Red Sea.
It is also a thinly veiled reference to attempts by landlocked Ethiopia to gain a territorial foothold on the Red Sea coastline through Somaliland, which Somalia has denounced as a breach of its sovereignty.
Both Egypt and Turkey enjoy close relations with the Mogadishu government. Additionally, Egypt has been embroiled in a long-running dispute with Ethiopia over its vital share of the Nile waters.
Egypt has seemed unperturbed by Turkey's vast influence in Syria after the overthrow 14 months ago of long-time dictator Bashar Al Assad, although it continues to deal cautiously with the new regime in Damascus.
Egypt and Turkey have been sharing intelligence and holding joint war games. They, together with the US and Qatar, mediated the ceasefire that paused the war in Gaza in October.
Indirectly acknowledging the value of ties to Egypt, Turkey has clamped down on critics of Mr El Sisi who have lived in Turkey since the removal of Morsi. It has also shut down TV stations critical of the Egyptian leader and asked senior members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood to leave the country.
The sources said Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia – who between them wield vast regional influence – have in recent months forged an unofficial alliance to shield the region from further upheavals after the wars in Gaza and Sudan, and Israel's continuing strikes against Lebanon and its perceived attempts to secure a foothold in the strategic Horn of Africa region and on the Red Sea coastline.
