Turkey’s Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati’s upcoming visit to Egypt scheduled for June 1 has created excitement, particularly among Turkey’s pro-government media outlets, as it will mark the first high-level visit from Ankara to Cairo after years of a deep freeze.

Nebati will attend the Islamic Development Bank summit to be convened in the Red Sea resort province of Sharm el-Sheikh, and he is also set to hold talks with “his counterparts” on the sidelines of the meeting, Turkey’s Finance and Treasury Ministry said in a statement without clarifying whether he will also meet with his Egyptian counterpart. The visit will mark the first ministerial-level meeting from Ankara to Cairo in nine years.

Yet despite that Ankara has made a significant effort to reduce the activities of Muslim Brotherhood members based in Turkey, including forcing some of its members to leave the country by not extending their residency permits, the planned visit appears to be failing to generate similar sentiment on the Egyptian side. 

Egyptian diplomat and Egypt’s last Ambassador to Turkey Abdel-Rahman Salahuddin, who returned to his country in 2013 as a result of Ankara’s protest of the ouster of the country’s then Muslim Brotherhood-led government, said Cairo was still waiting for more concrete steps from Ankara. Describing Ankara’s efforts as a “step in the right direction,” Salahuddin told Turkey’s independent ANKA news agency, “We hope they follow their statements with more action,” referring to the Turkish government.