Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi arrived in Ankara on Wednesday(September 4) for talks with Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan, the first such presidential visit in 12 years, amid a warming of long-frozen relations between the regional powers, Reuters reports.
Erdogan had travelled to Cairo in February, his first trip to Egypt since 2012, taking a major step toward rebuilding ties that were severely strained for a decade.
Relations between Ankara and Cairo collapsed in 2013 after Egypt's then-army chief Sisi led the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi, a Turkish ally who had become Egypt's first democratically elected president the year before. Mursi visited Turkey as president in 2012.
Erdogan met Sisi at Ankara airport before they left together in Erdogan's motorcade for the presidential palace for a welcome ceremony. They will also chair the first meeting of the Turkey-Egypt High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council.
