From East Med to Ethiopia, can Turkey’s Erdogan and Egypt’s Sisi form regional axis?

Speaking a week before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Egypt, which is scheduled for Wednesday Feb. 14, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced that Turkey would sell drones to Egypt — displaying a 180-degree turn in Ankara-Cairo ties.

Erdogan’s historic trip to Cairo amid growing defense cooperation between the two countries may be a harbinger of new momentum in the region.

From rupture to all-out partnership

After Egypt’s 2013 military coup, Ankara-Cairo ties were all but severed. Erdogan hated the putschists not only for overthrowing his fellow Islamist ally, late President Mohamed Morsi, and his Muslim Brotherhood-led government, but also for limiting the benefits that he intended to receive from Egyptian influence in the Arab and Muslim world.