Why Turkey is wooing Egypt
How will improved relations between Cairo and Ankara boost bilateral trade and joint investment? A number of Egyptian businesspeople are keeping fingers crossed that easing tensions between the two Mediterranean countries will open up new opportunities.
Turkey may be seeking a way to ease its economic turmoil by wooing Egypt for more business and bilateral trade. Egyptian economists and Turkish affairs experts say Ankara’s recent efforts to reset relations are meant to help counterbalance its isolation from the European Union and a number of Arab countries.
“There’s some pacification from the Turkish side, but there’s no rapprochement,” Karam Said, an expert on Turkish affairs at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told Al-Monitor.
On March 8, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin spoke about Ankara’s wish to turn a new page with Egypt.
Earlier, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said his country has “many historical and cultural values in common with Egypt.”
