On Thursday, Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Turkey and Egypt are planning to enhance cooperation to ensure stability in Libya.
“Ankara and Cairo will cooperate more closely regarding Libya,” Çavuşoğlu said at a joint press conference with visiting Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry in Ankara.
“In our meeting today, we (saw) that our views are not essentially very different, but that we think differently on some methods,” he added.
“The two countries will work on a roadmap to hold elections in Libya, and training and reinforcing a unified military between forces in the east and west of Libya,” he said.
Egypt’s foreign minister said that “there is a mutual will regarding Libya between the two countries, and both states are on the same page in terms of the formation of a new government to represent the will of the Libyan people, and protect the territorial integrity of the country.”
Çavuşoğlu also said they are taking concrete steps in reappointing ambassadors.
Last month the Turkish FM visited Cairo on a one-day official visit upon Shoukry’s invitation, in a first between the countries in 11 years.
During his visit, Çavuşoğlu said that Ankara and Cairo agreed to continue joint coordination and consultations for the stability of Libya.
“We discussed Libya in a little more detail. We agreed that we are not rivals in Libya, and that we should work together for the stability of Libya. We will intensify our consultations on this issue as well,” Çavuşoğlu noted.
The Turkish FM explained that Ankara’s maritime energy deal with Libya was not against Egypt’s interests. He noted Cairo was initially disturbed by Turkey’s presence in the region, but affirmed that their presence did not pose a threat to Egypt.
Regarding ties with Libya, Çavuşoğlu said Turkey was in touch with both sides of the political divide in Libya.
“The most legitimate foreign presence in Libya is Turkey’s military presence,” he claimed.
In October 2022, Libya and Turkey signed a series of economic agreements that included potential energy exploration in maritime areas. As a result, Egypt denounced the MoU on the energy between Turkey and Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU), headed by Abdel-Hamid Dbaiba.
