Turkey has resumed diplomatic contacts with Egypt and wants to further cooperation, Turkish leaders said on Friday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the contacts were “not at the highest level, but right below the highest level. We hope that we can continue this process with Egypt much more strongly.”
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by state-owned Anadolu news agency: “We have contacts with Egypt both on the intelligence level and the foreign ministry level ... Contacts at the diplomatic level have started.”
An Egyptian security official received a phone call from a Turkish intelligence official on Thursday, setting out Turkey’s desire for a meeting in Cairo to discuss economic, political and diplomatic cooperation, Egyptian intelligence sources said according to Reuters.
The Egyptian official welcomed the call and promised to respond as soon as possible, the Egyptian sources said.
The call followed unofficial contacts between Egyptian and Turkish security officials in which communications between the two sides were discussed. The issue of maritime borders, a source of tension between Turkey and other east Mediterranean countries, was not raised, according to the sources.
Rebuilding trust will be hard. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said last week the Arab League expressed its “categorical rejection” of Turkish military interventions in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
