Egypt and Turkey have agreed to expand defence and security cooperation across various fields, building on improved political relations.
During a closed-door meeting in Ankara on Monday, the defence ministers of both countries discussed ways to advance bilateral defence industry projects , Turkish media reported.
They also discussed regional issues of mutual concern and regional security challenges .
Egypt and Turkey have been enhancing their military cooperation and political coordination for several months now, following a decade of tension.
In those months, the two countries took a raft of measures to mend their fences and increase their cooperation.
The same measures demonstrated their mutual desire to start a new chapter in a changing regional context, analysts said.
Monday's talks were held by an Egyptian defence delegation, led by Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Ashraf Salem Zaher, and a Turkish one, led by Turkish Minister of National Defence, Yaşar Güler.
Lt. Gen. Zaher's visit to Turkey is the first by an Egyptian minister of defence since 2013, the year relations between the two countries began to decline before gradually returning to normal as of 2023.
The visit came at the invitation of the Turkish minister, according to the Spokesman of the Egyptian Armed Forces.
Defence industry ambitions
Following his meeting with the Turkish Minister of National Defence, Lt. Gen. Zaher met the President of the Defence Industry Agency of Türkiye, Haluk Görgün.
During the meeting, both officials signed a Letter of Intent that creates a framework for defence industry cooperation between the two countries in the coming period.
They also discussed expanding cooperation and upgrading their countries' shared capabilities.
The defence partnership between Egypt and Turkey, they noted, would strengthen regional security.
The acceleration in contacts between defence officials in the two countries comes as Cairo and Ankara harbour aspirations for comprehensive defence cooperation, observers in Cairo said.
Egypt, which has been pursuing a policy of arms diversification, eyes closer defence industry cooperation with Turkey, a rising regional defence industry power, they added.
"Egypt views defence partnerships with countries like Turkey as an important booster of its comprehensive capabilities, thanks to its advanced military industry capabilities," Gen. Nasr Salem, the former reconnaissance commander of the Egyptian Armed Forces, told The New Arab .
He cited a wide range of fields in which the two countries cooperate, including joint training and military manufacturing.
Lt. Gen. Zaher's visit to Ankara also comes as Turkey tries to overcome obstacles to readmission into the US F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme.
NATO member Türkiye was excluded from the programme in 2019 due to its purchase of the Russian S-400 air defence system.
Now, however, it reportedly seeks to sell the system to a third country, with some media outlets pointing to Gulf countries as potential buyers.
Egypt operates a multi-layered air defence system that brings together equipment from the US, Russia, China and some European countries. The network also includes some home-grown equipment.
Nevertheless, Egyptian defence planners eye more than just the purchase of another Russian air defence system, analysts in Cairo said.
They base this assumption on the course of talks between the two countries over the past months.
In those months, Egypt and Turkey agreed to expand cooperation in the defence industry, including the manufacture of drones .
Egypt is also reportedly preparing to join Türkiye's ambitious fifth-generation KAAN stealth fighter jet programme as a co-producer and manufacturer.
"Turkey has a distinguished record in the making of drones, qualifying it to be a useful defence partner for Egypt," Gen. Salem remarked.
Joint military drills
The visit of the Egyptian army chief to Ankara comes only two weeks after the Chief of the Turkish General Staff, Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu, paid a visit to Cairo, during which he met his Egyptian counterpart, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Khalifa, and attended the fifth meeting of the Egyptian-Turkish Military Cooperation Committee .
The meeting was held shortly after Turkish fighter jets flew over Cairo as part of joint exercises with the Egyptian Air Force, the first between them in over a decade.
These exercises occurred a short time before fighter aircraft from the two countries conducted the ' Anatolian Eagle 2026 ' exercise at an airbase in Türkiye.
Special combat troops from Egypt and Turkey also conducted joint training—alongside troops from other countries—shortly before, as part of the Flintlock 2026 exercise in Sirte.
This city in northern central Libya has been a symbol of tensions between Cairo and Ankara, as it is part of the eastern Libyan government backed by Egypt, in contrast to the Turkey-backed government in the western part of the country.
Regional realignment
Intensifying defence cooperation between the two sides is a minor detail in the larger picture of accelerating political coordination, Turkish observers said.
This speeding up of coordination is driven by the belief in both Cairo and Ankara that the region is changing quickly, making their cooperation a necessity, they added.
"Cooperation between the two countries – regardless of its form – is an added force to the Islamic world against the threats it faces," Turkish political analyst Feras Ridwan Oğlu said.
Speaking to TNA , he added that this cooperation also mirrors the transformations sweeping the regional scene.
The two countries were once divided by their ideological differences, divergent regional alliances, and competing Eastern Mediterranean interests.
Whether these differences would constitute a challenge to their desire to expand cooperation in the future remains to be seen.
Observers like Ridwan Oğlu believe that the factors uniting the two countries are far stronger than those drawing them apart.
Among other things, the two countries agree on a large number of regional files, including Libya, Sudan and the Horn of Africa.
They emerge as pillars in a potential Sunni grouping that also includes Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Called 'Regional Quartet', the new bloc brings together sizeable populations, military power and economic capabilities.
It appears at a critical time for the region, especially with the US-Israeli war on Iran heralding a security vacuum that threatens regional stability.
"Closer political and security coordination between Egypt and Turkey will compel other regional actors to rethink their calculations," Ridwan Oğlu said.