Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Cairo last Wednesday was not an ordinary one; rather, it marked a pivotal moment in Turkish-Egyptian relations, signalling the formation of a strategic alliance between the two countries.

The warm reception extended to the Turkish president by his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, carries significant implications, pointing to emerging security and military understandings, as well as political and economic cooperation agreements between Cairo and Ankara.

Cairo appears open to broader cooperation with the Turkish side, which has succeeded in easing political tensions between the two countries and in accelerating the pace of rapprochement, to compensate for the strategic losses incurred by both sides.

The success of President Erdoğan’s third visit to Egypt within two years lies primarily in its sensitive timing. The region is facing a major escalation between the United States and Iran that could develop into a war. Should such a conflict erupt, it would cast a heavy shadow over the region, reignite tensions in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, and potentially draw in regional actors, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Shiite factions in Iraq. Israel could also exploit such a scenario to resume the war on the Gaza Strip.

The visit was marked by personal warmth between the two presidents—symbolized by Erdoğan’s gift of a Turkish-made car to El-Sisi—as well as by the nature of the agreements signed between the two sides and the signals they carry for the future. The two countries border five key seas—the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara, and the Aegean—and control three vital international waterways: the Suez Canal, the Dardanelles, and the Bosphorus, according to Turkish affairs researcher Samir Al-Arki.

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The sensitive timing, Turkish pragmatism, Turkish-Saudi convergence on several regional issues, and Emirati overreach in the Sudan and Somalia files—at the expense of Egypt’s interests in its strategic backyard—all contributed to accelerating Cairo’s move toward further understandings and arrangements with Ankara.

The period between the first and second meetings of the Strategic Cooperation Council between the two countries saw approximately 50 official visits at various levels.

Egypt is Turkey’s........

© Middle East Monitor