Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (right) meets Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at the reception house of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow, Russia, on March 16, 2022, ahead of traveling to Ukraine the next day in efforts to broker a cease-fire between the two sides. Photo: VCG

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that Ankara and Cairo could mutually appoint ambassadors in the upcoming months as part of efforts to normalize bilateral ties.

"We can exchange ambassadors in the coming months," Cavusoglu told reporters, adding that Ankara and Cairo may hold the third round of technical talks before meeting at the ministerial level.

Turkey wants to proceed with the normalization process with Egypt through high-level talks, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a day after his first meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in Qatar earlier in November.

Erdogan and Sisi shook hands during their brief encounter in Qatar's capital Doha on the sidelines of the World Cup opening ceremony on November 20 after years of strained ties between the two leaders.

Turkey's relations with Egypt turned sour after former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was ousted in July 2013 and his Turkish-backed Muslim Brotherhood group was outlawed, prompting the two countries to expel each other's ambassadors.

With conflicting positions over the conflict in Libya and the maritime borders in the Eastern Mediterranean region, Ankara and Cairo held their first diplomatic talks in eight years in 2021.

Turkey has tried to mend its frayed relationships with regional powers, including Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the past few years. 

Xinhua