Egypt and Turkey will soon reappoint ambassadors and formally reestablish diplomatic ties following a decade of hostilities, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a presser in Ankara Thursday with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry (watch, runtime: 6:40). Following their third round of talks in as many months, the two diplomats agreed to collaborate on developing and strengthening a unified military force in Libya, as well as developing a timeline for holding elections in the country, easing a key source of tensions between them.

El Sisi-Erdogan summit? Shoukry and Cavusoglu reiterated plans to work towards arranging a face-to-face meeting between President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In a sign of warming ties between the two countries, the two leaders were pictured shaking hands in Doha in November.

Times are changing fast: The Egypt-Turkey relationship has (almost) done a 180 since the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria in February. Soon after the disaster, Shoukry became the first Egyptian foreign minister to visit Turkey in a decade, a trip that was followed three weeks later by talks in Cairo where Cavusoglu received a warm welcome.

The talks received global attention:Reuters | AP | Bloomberg.

FROM THE REGION-

Syria isn’t yet welcome in the Arab League: A meeting of regional foreign ministers in Jeddah last week ended without reaching a consensus on welcoming Syria back into the Arab League. The top diplomats from Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, and the GCC countries agreed to “intensify consultations” to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis, the Saudi foreign ministry said, but stopped short of announcing they would look to readmit Syria into the forum. The topic will likely be tabled at the next Arab League meeting in the KSA in May, according to AP.

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