Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that his country would send a delegation led by the Deputy Foreign Minister to Egypt in early May. This delegation is part of efforts to repair strained relations with Cairo.

Cavusoglu said in a television interview that Egypt had invited a Turkish delegation to visit it in the first week of May to discuss relations between the two countries. There is a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry after those talks.

This Turkish approach comes in light of hints of an imminent rapprochement between Ankara and Cairo after years of political crisis between the two countries. This comes after the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced last week that the foreign ministers of Turkey and Egypt spoke by phone. It is the first direct contact between them since frequent leaks about a possible rapprochement between the two countries. This rapprochement and reconciliation will end seven years of diplomatic estrangement.

The two countries have now resumed contact for the first time since relations were cut over Turkey’s position rejecting the military coup against the late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. The pace of calm between Ankara and Cairo is accelerating amid intelligence and diplomatic coordination over Libya and the Eastern Mediterranean.

A few days ago, Egyptian opposition channels broadcasting from Turkey stopped programmes known for their strong criticism of the regime of Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, the most important of which were Muhammad Nasser and Moataz Matar’s. The Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly thanked the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the efforts he made during Turkey’s rotating presidency of the Group of Eight Islamic Countries.