Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry beginning on 18 February in a bid to resume relations between the two countries, Sputnik has reported.

According to Sputnik, the Egyptian minister will hold talks with his Turkish counterpart in Cairo on many bilateral and regional issues.

The Turkish foreign minister’s visit comes after his Egyptian counterpart visited Turkiye last month to review damage from the massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake. His visit was the first since diplomatic relations between the two countries fell apart over a decade ago following the so-called Arab Spring.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was a strong supporter of Egypt’s previous president, Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi won Egypt’s first presidential election after the toppling of Egypt’s long-time ruler, Hosni Mubarak, following street protests in January 2011. General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Egypt’s military toppled Morsi in a Saudi-funded coup in July 2013, and Sisi then became Egypt’s president through elections in 2014.

The thaw in relations appears to have begun during the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar last November, as Sisi and Erdogan had a conversation and shook hands.

Sisi also spoke with Erdogan in February to express Egypt’s solidarity with Turkiye following the earthquake that killed over 40,000 people in Turkiye and Syria combined.

Sputnik noted further that normalization between the two countries has nevertheless been slow due to several outstanding issues, including the presence of Turkish forces in Libya and Syria and Turkiye’s hosting of members of the Muslim Brotherhood who are wanted by the Egyptian authorities.

The move towards normalization between Egypt and Turkiye comes amid a broader trend towards normalization between various West Asian countries previously divided as a result of US intervention in the region.

Relations have recently improved between Syria and several countries which previously supported extremist militant groups as part of the covert US war against Syria that began in 2011, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this week, Iran and Saudi Arabia announced a resumption of relations following the success of Chinese, Iraqi, and Omani brokered talks. Both countries were also divided as a result of the war on Syria, as Saudi intelligence worked closely with the US to prosecute the war on Syria, while Iran remained a staunch supporter of the Syrian government along with Russia.

The resumption of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia is viewed by many as a significant step toward improving peace and stability in West Asia.