Turkey Exposes ‘Main Sticking Point’ in Normalization with Egypt – Details
The Libyan issue has remained one of the most prominent disputes between Turkey and Egypt, despite the ongoing attempts at normalization, in light of the intense competition between them. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said at the end of his visit to Cairo, “The issue that Egypt is not comfortable with, is our presence in Libya”.
“We have been saying since the beginning that our presence there does not pose a threat to Egypt, and that this presence was at the invitation of the legitimate government then, and continued at the behest of subsequent governments”, Çavuşoğlu said in response to questions from journalists. “We have always stated that the Turkish presence does not have any negative effects on Egypt”.
The Turkish Minister referred to the Maritime Agreement concluded between his country and Libya, which he said is not against Egypt’s interests, as is the case with the Cairo Agreement with Greece, which is not against Ankara, considering that Egypt took into account Turkey’s interests when it concluded maritime agreements with Greece.
Çavuşoğlu’s visit last Saturday to Cairo was the first by such a high-ranking Turkish official in nearly a decade. The visit is aimed at strengthening confidence-building measures between the two sides.
Asked about Egypt’s position on the hydrocarbon exploration agreement in the eastern Mediterranean, the Turkish official said: “This is not a problem, every country has hydrocarbon agreements with another country.”
He added, “Egypt is currently objecting to this agreement on the grounds that the current government in Libya cannot sign agreements, because its mandate has expired and it is no longer legitimate, and it did not say that the signed agreement was against it”.
Relations between Egypt and Turkey were severely strained in 2013 following the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi, but have gradually improved since 2021.
Last October, Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding with Libya’s outgoing national unity government, allowing Ankara to assert its rights over large areas in the eastern Mediterranean.
The memorandum is an extension of an agreement Ankara signed with Fayez al-Sarraj’s government in 2019 to demarcate their maritime borders, which infuriated Egypt and Greece. Egypt responded to the MOU by stressing that the “outgoing government of Tripoli does not have the legitimacy to sign such agreements.”
Ankara and Cairo have agreed to continue close consultation and cooperation on Libya, Çavuşoğlu said, noting that they do not consider the Turkish presence in Libya or military cooperation between the two sides a threat.
He pointed out that Cairo has security concerns regarding the problem of stability in Libya, and pointed out that Turkey and Egypt are not competing countries on the Libyan arena
