animosity. turkiye and egypt restoring full diplomatic relations as the foreign ministers meet in ankara . this is inside story. tom: welcome to the program. i am tom mcrae. after years of hostility,

turkiye and egypt are rebuilding their ties. diplomatic relations plunged in 2013 when egypt's current president led a military coup that overthrew democratically elected leader mohamed morsi. turkey has since hosted a number of muslim brotherhood figures who fled egypt. the egyptian government criticized that, saying it was sheltering terrorists. a decade later, attempts to mend their relationship could have widespread implications in the region and could affect political links, presidential elections, and economies. our reporter has more. reporter: after a decade of political animosity, turkiye and egypt showed they are mending ties. a high level meeting like this one between their foreign ministers had long been considered impossible. yet it took place last month in cairo between turkiye and --

sameh shoukry and mevlut cavusoglu. it is a far cry from 2013, when president el-sisi led a coup against egypt's first democratically elected president mohamed morsi. he was backed by turkiye. relations between the two nations took a turn for the worse. especially after turkiye provide a refuge for egyptian dissidents, many of them leaders of the muslim brotherhood. in the conflict in libya, ankara backs the recognized government. in 2019, turkiye signed a

maritime agreement with libya and that fueled the disputes with egypt over energy exploration in the mediterranean sea. now egypt needs help to support its economy and that is something turkiye can provide. the attempts to reset ties apparently sweeping years of differences and to inform her rivals and to analyze. -- turning former rivals into allies. tom: let's bring in our guests. yusuf alabarda, security expert with foundation for political, economic and social research. helin sari ertem, associate professor of international relations at istanbul medeniyet university. khalil al-anani, senior fellow at arab center washington, d.c.

a warm welcome to all of you. erdogan once called lcc a tyrant. -- lcc a tyrant. what has changed to get them to this point? >> we are introducing another chapter in the middle east history because there is a continuing history and this is something quite positive and turkish foreign policy as well because we only have a small anonymous -- amount of time between now and the general elections. this has empowered foreign affairs and internal affairs. we should have a broader look to

the relationship between turkiye boko it -- and egypt in the last few months. we now have egyptian foreign minister in ankara. in a broader perspective this is a continuation of the relationship between turkiye and gulf countries. as well as turkiye getting closer with israel, especially in the last couple of months. this is quite helpful for turkiye especially in terms of the mediterranean energy security. turkey needed such a move because it is almost impossible for turkiye to be at odds

against so many countries at the same time. for that reason, we see a similar thing with turkiye getting closer with israel and we are witnessing the aftereffects of the earthquakes, so this is earthquake diplomacy. tom: why now? why is this happening now do you think? >> i think for different reasons, some of them relate to domestic affairs in each country. some of them relate to regional position and blow below position as well. -- global positioning as well.

there is the devaluation of the egyptian pound. debt and inflation as well. both countries feel now is the time to mend the relationship. secondly, the regional shifts. there are different changes, there was fluidity in the region right now. trying to shift from the old policies in order to repair the relations. turkiye is trying to adopt zero problems foreign policy, trying to repair and mend relationships with other countries.

if we look at the global changes right now, this competition between the u.s. and china, pushes both countries to think. both realize they should move a little bit from the past and try to open a new chapter. if we look at the bilateral economic relations between both countries, it was not impacted by the [indiscernible] the trade volume increased to $11 billion trade volume. it is very significant for both countries. tom: so it is a perfect storm bringing them back together at this time. there are been many issues that

divided the two countries. what are the terms of this reconciliation or is everything up for discussion? >> everything probably will be on the table because as the previous guest mentioned, the changing conditions, especially in the world and in the area, forced these two countries to discuss on the table, but i do believe they will put aside the problems they cannot resolve and they will go further for the issues that they can. they will not discuss the issue about the muslim brotherhood because turkiye already started limiting their media coverage. nobody can push turkiye to accept the muslim brotherhood is a terrorist organization.

for that reason, everything will be on the table, but they will put aside the problems that cannot resolve and they will move forward with the issues that they can board. tom: you pretty much wrote the book on the muslim brotherhood. what sort of follow-up will there be for them in this scenario? >> i think they are already under pressure from what is happening. first of all, the brotherhood has been in turkey for the last decade, they provided them a safe haven. they got many chances. there also facing deep internal divisions which impacted the ability to bring about change. they got there chances, now

turkey is looking at the issue as an liability on their foreign policy. that is why they took some measures to ease tensions not only with egypt, but with other regional forces, including saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. turkey has shut down one of the most important channels. it already took measures in order to pull down tension with egypt. the impact will be significant. however, when it comes to extraditing to my think this is not going to happen.

i doubt turkey will accept the egyptian demand or questions about this issue, which might be an issue for division in the future. tom: has there been any reaction from the muslim brotherhood to the foreign ministers meeting for the second time? is there a fear that some may be extradited back to egypt? >> there is a possibility, but we should underline something. i do not think the philosophy, at least the background that the turkish government is feeling about muslim brotherhood changed. there is still a strong sympathy

for them. at the same time, there are the rules that turkey has to follow as well. for that reason, turkiye is putting a kind of separation between itself officially and the muslim brotherhood as an organization. i do agree that turkey will not mark them as a terrorist organization. i think this will never happen. for sure there should be concrete steps from the turkish side to persuade the egyptian side regarding the muslim brotherhood. i think the biggest potential problem is libya. it is been there and it is very serious. so many actors are included in this problem.

i think the biggest problem between turkey and egypt is libya, not the muslim brotherhood at the moment. and we have to speak about libya more regarding the future of relations. tom: there are many issues when it comes to libya. the exclusive economic zone, the disputed maritime borders, military interference. how are they going to come to any sort of agreement on any of those issues and do you think they can? >> libya is one of the most important issues that should come into alignment for both countries.

there is a stalemate position inside libya. if there was an agreement to make an alignment [indiscernible] for that reason, if the egyptian side understands it is also a win-win position and for all it is economic problems, i do not believe that will be agreement over the libyan issue. from the point of the perspective of the exclusive economic zone. should say there is no overlap in area in between egypt and turkiye. the issue is the continental shelf.

tom: what do you think are the sticking points going to be for egypt when it comes to libya? is there read line? >> i think so. each of sees libya as part of the special security. -- egypt sees libya as part of the special security. and almost the forces came close. el-sisi said they will not accept any further advancements the turkish forces.

so yes, there is some issues. but i think both countries realize they can come to an agreement. there are many divisions. the elections were supposed to take class -- place in december 2021. they were postponed indefinitely. there are some hopes elections will take place by the end of this year. but both parties in libya, they should come to terms in order to move forward. if this happens, i think both

countries will come to an agreement because they know if the situation in libya has settled down, they will benefit. tom: i want to circle back to something you said earlier. erdogan faces a presidential election in a few weeks. how important is this for him? what is the support like in turkiye for forging a closer relationship with egypt? >> we witnessed the positive impact of zero problems with neighbors policy in the past. turkey knows there are so many advantages if it can underline the win-win strategy for its

members, including egypt as a regional partner. it is easy to disrupt relations, but it is not so hard to create a positive atmosphere in which all of the countries will have economic benefits. turkish-egyptian economic relations have never fallen down. it always went up and up. this is very interesting. turkey has many political problems with israel, but the economic relations have never been down. turkey needs this. it is important for turkey to

have foreign investment, a better economic benefits from the region. for that reason, many countries including saudi arabia, egypt, israel, they know they have so many stuff to gain when they have better relations. at the same time, there are some crisis times. all of these countries are trying to show both in terms of military aspects. they are trying to show off their military power. turkey is doing that since the civil war. turkey is there in libya militarily. russia is there, which is very

important. russia is still there and determined to continue its position there by improving its relations with china. we also see there was activity on the united states position as well in libya because after the ukrainian war there was a huge energy and security problem regarding europe. the united states is very interested in libya's oil. in the last couple of weeks, there was an agreement between the libyan company and an american company about construction of an oil refinery in libya.

we see a huge rivalry in the middle east in terms of that. tom: i want to talk about the eastern mediterranean and how that would be impacted, how would greece and cyprus be impacted by closer ties between turkiye and egypt? >> the turkish exclusive economic zone has lots of problems with grace. -- greece. so far, we have realized that although relations between egypt and greece, egypt has always

been respectful to the turkish economical zones. for that reason, the normalization of relations between turkiye and egypt will have no relations on greece and cyprus. those two problems are separate. the normalization of relations between turkey and egypt probably will not have any effect on the elections inside turkey because the agenda is different. the turkish existence in libya is very important from the security of europe.

russian forces inside libya, you should understand [indiscernible] another issue about that problem is that without the turkish existence inside libya, there would be a huge flow of refugees. turkey prevented that flow of refugees from libya to europe. we should never forget that. >> we should also underline this created the tension between turkey and egypt as well. for turkey, libya has quite significant, but this is not as serious. in the long run, it is serious,

but it is not the same thing egypt sees libya as a security problem. i do agree that turkey's position in libya was somehow beneficial for preventing the crisis in southern europe, but i also should underline this created some other problems regarding regional partners like egypt. tom: we spoke about this earlier, but it seems like as many countries are being divided by the war in ukraine, there are is as many that want to become friends again. why do you think there is a coming together of these nations at this point in time? >> i think this is because of what is happening around the world.

if you look at the russian war in ukraine, we are talking about no more than 14 months of the war in the heart of europe. this has huge implications for the international system and global politics. we also see the rising of competition and conflict between the united states and china. we saw a very important development when china brokered for the first time resumption of relations between iran and saudi arabia. tells a lot about what is happening in the region.

these countries came to a conclusion that the -- they need to reposition themselves. the same is happening between saudi arabia and syria. between israel and other countries. we have seen significant changes right now. it is all contingent upon what is happening regionally or internationally. i think this would be one of the most dividing issues between turkey and egypt. we know cyprus and greece are

the main adversaries of turkey and they have good relations with egypt. when egypt sacrificed its relationship with these two countries? until now, egypt and turkey [indiscernible] tom: we have run out of time. thank you very much. it will be fascinating to see how this plays out. thank you very much to our three guests today. thank you very much for being on inside story. thank you jesse for watching. you can watch the program again any time by visiting our website. for further discussion, go to our facebook page. you can also join the conversation on twitter.

from the whole team here, goodbye for now.