File photo of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Cairo: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the Egyptian capital on Wednesday on his first visit since 2012, sealing a thaw in ties between the regional heavyweights.
Erdogan was welcomed at Cairo airport by his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the two men exchanged a handshake on the tarmac, live footage of his arrival showed.
Erdogan, an outspoken critic of Israel's conduct of the Gaza war, said Monday that he would discuss with Sisi efforts to halt the bloodshed.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is received by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi upon arrival in Cairo pic.twitter.com/7782OcChpM
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Egypt has been hosting joint efforts with Qatar and the United States to broker a new truce between Israel and Hamas.
Egypt and Turkey cut ties in 2013 after Sisi, then Egypt's defence minister, ousted president Mohamed Morsi, an ally of Turkey.
But relations have thawed since 2021, when a Turkish delegation visited Egypt to discuss normalisation.
By last July, Cairo and Ankara had appointed ambassadors to each other's capitals for the first time in a decade.
In November 2022, Erdogan and Sisi shook hands in Qatar in what the Egyptian presidency heralded as a new beginning for their relations.
The two leaders have since met in several other countries, including Saudi Arabia in November and at the G20 summit in India in September.
