Athens monitoring Turkey, Egypt contacts
Ankara using economic card with Cairo, with which it also converges on regional issues like Somalia
Athens appears troubled by Turkey’s reconciliation with Egypt, which is facing major economic problems as a result of the Middle East conflict. Ankara is utilizing economic incentives, but Turkey and Egypt also appear to be on the same page on regional matters, such as the situation in Somalia. At the same time, however, Egypt has invested extensively in financial aid from the EU, with Greece being Cairo’s most active and constant backer in this regard.
The thawing of relations between Ankara and Cairo was apparent a few weeks ago, on August 5, when Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visited Egypt and met his new counterpart, Badr Abdelatty.
Talks between the two sides went better than expected, and even led to an agreement to hold an Egyptian-Turkish High Cooperation Council with the participation of as many ministers with portfolios related to the economy as possible.
Of course, the convening of a High Cooperation Council requires a prior meeting between the presidents of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Athens is keeping an eye on Ankara’s efforts to reach out to Cairo, and also on the long-term regional developments, of which Turkey is a key and central factor. Due to the Middle East war and the spillover of the crisis into the Gulf of Aden, Egypt has lost a significant proportion of its two main sources of foreign exchange: revenues from the Suez Canal crossings and tourism.
Turkey is essentially attempting to entice Cairo in two ways: first, expanding bilateral trade, and second, by assisting Cairo on regional fronts that are critical to Egypt’s domestic security, such as the management of relations with Ethiopia and Somalia.
After many years of efforts, Athens reached an understanding with Cairo regarding the Eastern Mediterranean which resulted in the partial agreement on the delimitation of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in 2020.
Greece’s partial agreement with Egypt is currently the strongest substantial and legal argument it has against the views put forward by Turkey with the so-called Turkey-Libya maritime memorandum.
However, for the time being, any Turkish-Egyptian approach does not include Libya.
Egypt and Turkey remain on opposite sides of the Libyan issue, as shown by the recent hostilities on the outskirts of Tripoli and the constant pressure from Cairo (through Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army) to oust the pro-Turkish interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh.
