Turkey, Egypt to Sign Strategic Cooperation Pact
Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyep Erdogan is set to visit Egypt next week to
discuss a strategic cooperation agreement covering military, diplomatic,
and economic issues, the Egyptian media reported.
The moves comes as
the crisis in Israel-Turkey relations grow worse following the leaking
last week of a United Nations-commissioned report on the 2010 Gaza
flotilla raid, angering Ankara.
Israeli-Egyptian relations have also
taken a turn for the worse after Israeli troops inadvertently killed
five Egyptian police responding to a terror attack on the border between
the two countries August 18.
Erdogan is scheduled to meet with the
Egyptian prime minister and the head of the Egyptian military council on
September 12 to discuss increased cooperation.
In Tel Aviv, meanwhile,
Greek Defense Minister Panagiotis Beglitis paid a highly visible working
meeting with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak.
Greece and Israel have
enhanced their strategic partnership in the past year, with Israeli
jets training long-range missions in Greece.