Gaza needs urgent access to humanitarian aid: Turkish FM, Egyptian president

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi have reiterated calls for safe and urgent access to humanitarian aid for the people of Palestine's Gaza.

During a meeting in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Saturday, Fidan and Sisi also stressed the importance of preventing collective punishment for the people of Gaza such as “siege, famine or displacement,” Egypt's Presidency said.

Fidan and Sisi “reached a consensus on the extreme danger of the current situation and its threat to the stability and security of the region, which requires intensifying international efforts to immediately end the violence, restore calm,” it added.

They also discussed the bilateral relations between Türkiye and Egypt, and the Egyptian President expressed his satisfaction with the developments seen in bilateral relations within the framework of mutual respect and common interests.

Sisi drew attention to the importance of continuing to work to improve the relations between the two countries and take them to a new level in the future, to continue mutual steps to activate various bilateral cooperation mechanisms and to achieve concrete progress.

Türkiye-Egypt relations

In a joint news conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry later on Saturday, Fidan said that the relations between Türkiye and Egypt “have entered a brand new era in which we turn our horizons to the future and focus on cooperation.”

“Reviving the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council is on our agenda. We will continue to strengthen our cooperation in areas such as trade, economy, energy, aviation, tourism, culture, education, communication, and defence industry,” he said.

Fidan said that the bilateral trade volume between Türkiye and Egypt reached almost $10 billion last year, adding the new target for the next five years is $15 billion.

The Turkish foreign minister is on a two-day official visit to Cairo at the invitation of Shoukry, during which he also met with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who came to Egypt to address the current Mideast crisis.

His visit comes as hostilities between the Palestinian resistance group Hamas and Israel have entered their second week, with embattled Gaza bordering northeast Egypt facing Israeli airstrikes, a cutoff of basic utilities, and an order for over 1 million residents to evacuate their homes in the north and go to the south.

Türkiye has so far sent three planes with humanitarian relief to an Egyptian airport in the hope of sending them to neighbouring Gaza.