The presidents stressed the deep and historic relations binding the two countries and their peoples, said Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady in a statement on Monday.

"It was agreed [during the meeting] that this would be the beginning of the development of bilateral relations between the two sides," Rady stressed.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the inauguration of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The meeting between El-Sisi and Erdogan comes nearly two weeks after the announcement by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry that the dialogue between Egypt and Turkey to normalise ties had come to a stop over Turkish practices in Libya.

Cairo and Ankara held two rounds of exploratory talks last year – headed by the Egyptian and Turkish deputy foreign ministers – in a bid to mend their ruptured relations.

The split between the two countries dates to the 2013 ouster of Egypt’s late Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsy, who was backed by Erdogan, Turkey’s then-prime minister.

The crisis in Libya, which borders Egypt to the west, has further strained relations between the two countries as Turkey has introduced thousands of paid Syrian fighters into the conflict as well as continued its support of the outgoing Government of National Unity (GNU), which is headed by Abdel-Hamid Dbeibah.

The situation heated up in early October after the Tripoli-based GNU government signed a series of preliminary economic agreements with Turkey that might include energy exploration in maritime areas.

Egypt asserts that the GNU’s mandate has expired and that it is not authorised to sign such deals.

Despite the political split between Cairo and Ankara, the two countries still have ongoing economic relations.

According to Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, Turkey is an important export destination for Egypt in the first half of 2022, receiving eight percent of all the country’s exports.

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