Faced with the toughest reelection race in his two-decade rule, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been eager to show that he can mend what he has broken in Turkey’s regional ties, hoping to boost his sagging popular support. But just like Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appears reluctant to make plans for a formal reconciliation meeting with Erdogan before the May 14 polls.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held talks in Cairo Saturday in a bid to advance fence-mending efforts, becoming the first Turkish foreign minister to visit Egypt since bilateral ties broke over the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi, a close ally of Erdogan’s government, in 2013.

Also last week, Assad ruled out a meeting with Erdogan until Turkey's "illegal occupation" in Syria ended, denting expectations of Turkish and Syrian officials coming together in Moscow as part of four-way talks also involving Russia and Iran.

The Turkish-Egyptian normalization process had remained limited to two rounds of exploratory talks since it kicked off in 2021. Cairo cast doubt on the dialogue in October after Ankara signed fresh accords with the Tripoli government, but hopes of progress rekindled the following month as Sisi met with Erdogan at the opening of the World Cup in Qatar, shaking hands with the leader who had called him a “putschist” and a “murderer.”