Turkey ready to re-establish relations with Egypt for the sake of regional stability

A spokesperson for the Turkish Presidency described Egypt on Monday as the brain and heart of the Arab world. In an interview with Bloomberg, Ibrahim Kalin revealed that Turkey could be on the point of turning over a new page with Cairo, as well as the Gulf countries.

“We want to cooperate with Egypt in the Eastern Mediterranean, Libya, and the Palestine issue, which seems to be forgotten by the world,” Kalin explained. “If we could take bilateral constructive steps, it may help to stabilise the region.”

As a first step, he said, dialogue may develop bilateral and regional relations. “This also applies to the Gulf countries. We don’t have insolvable problems with any Arab country.”

In December, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey may negotiate a maritime demarcation agreement with Egypt, depending on the condition of bilateral ties.

READ: Turkey signals it could reach maritime deal with Egypt if relations warm

On Saturday, Defence Minister Hulusi Akar described Egypt’s decision to respect Turkey’s continental shelf while carrying out undersea exploration in the Mediterranean as a very important development which Turkey expects to continue. He added that Turkey and Egypt share historical, cultural, and common values.

Following Turkey’s rejection of the 2013 military coup against the first-ever freely-elected Egyptian President, Mohamad Morsi, relations between the two countries deteriorated. However, economic links have been unchanged.