Egypt and Turkey conduct first high-level military meeting in Ankara

The Turkish General Staff said in a statement that Chief of Staff Metin Gurak received his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Fathi Ibrahim Khalifa, with a military ceremony on Thursday, where they then held a closed meeting.

Following the closed meeting, the first high-level military dialogue meeting between Turkey and Egypt, planned to be held annually between the chiefs of staff of both countries, was held at the Turkish General Staff headquarters.

According to Turkish sources, the meeting addressed military cooperation relations and cooperation between Egypt and Turkey in the fields of training and defense industries.

Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler later received the Egyptian Chief of Staff and his accompanying delegation, the Pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported.

The first visit by a high-ranking Egyptian military official to Turkey since 2013 was by former Egyptian Chief of Staff Osama Askar, who was later appointed advisor to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Relations between the two countries had been strained in 2013 following the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt, but both countries have fully normalized relations almost a decade after.