CAIRO, March 18 (KUNA) — Egypt and Turkiye on Saturday affirmed necessity of restoring regular bilateral relations at various levels noting that the economic cooperation between them has been significant despite some strains in the political ties.

Speaking at a news conference with his guest, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry indicated that he held consultations with the visiting Turkish official to pave way for restoring normal relations between Cairo and Ankara.

He described the talks as transparent, candid and deep, dealing with various issues of joint concern, ALSO affirming that the two countries’ top leaders desired “to launch this track OF TALKS for reaching full normalization of the relations between Turkey and Egypt.” Egyptian-Turkish diplomatic relations have not been severed at any time, Shoukry added, indicating that the two countries have kept diplomatic representation in Cairo and Ankara at the charge d’affaires’ level.

The economic ties “had been significant despite the cold in the (political relations),” Shoukry said, noting that the trade exchanges reached approximately USD nine billion and Turkish investments in Egypt hit USD 2.5 billion.

The Egyptian foreign minister, nevertheless, stated that he would seek to remove hurdles facing Turkish entrepreneurs in his nation.

For his part, Cavusoglu expressed gratitude to Cairo for dispatching aid to his country in the aftermath of the recent deadly earthquake in southern turkey. He in turn pledged to spare no effort for “normalizing the relations and making sure there will be no return to tensions” in these ties with Cairo.

He acknowledged though that Cairo and Ankara are not on the same page with respect of some issues, however “solutions could be found if diplomacy prevails.” The two ministers indicated that their talks touched on various regional and Arab affairs. (end) asm.maa.rk

Source: Kuwait News Agency