Turkey: 'We will improve relations with Egypt if it corrects its mistakes'

Turkey is against “harm caused by Egypt to its people and its national security,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said yesterday, adding that Ankara is ready to “improve” relations with Cairo “if Egypt corrects its mistakes”.

Speaking in a press conference with his Kuwaiti counterpart Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah in Kuwait, Cavusoglu described the meetings with the Kuwaiti Emir, prime minister and parliament speaker as “fruitful”.

“Kuwait is considered a safe country,” Cavusoglu said. “It is an important country for the security and peace of the region and Turkey, as well.”

He expressed Turkish interests to have good relations with Egypt and other countries in the region, noting that “Egypt is a very important country in the Islamic world and the Middle East.”

Cavusoglu stressed: “Egypt’s stability affects the whole region.” Stressing that his country “is only objecting to the current situation in Egypt and the harm the ongoing government caused to Egypt and Egyptians.”

The Turkish minister said that Turkey has never taken any decision in international organisations against Egypt, “but we told the truth and expressed our ideas and criticism in a very clear way”.

Meanwhile, the minister said that there are countries in the Gulf that have worked against Turkey and “this is not right”.

About the Turkish-Kuwaiti relations, he said that the size of the commercial exchange between the two countries was $625 million last year. “This is not enough,” he said, “we aim to increase it to reach $1 billion.”

The Kuwaiti minister said that his country looks at Turkey as an “important” country in the region. He said that there is a massive attack on the Islamic world and all countries “must cooperate”.