Egypt and Turkey to hold joint naval exercise

Turkey and Egypt have announced a joint naval exercise in Alexandria, set to take place from 4 to 9 November. The exercise, named Sea of Friendship 2026, will involve naval units and personnel from both countries, covering surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, air defence and underwater offensive operations involving combat divers.

Turkish Ministry of National Defence spokesman Zeki Aktürk also announced that the Turkish corvette TCG Burgazada would visit the port of Alexandria from 1 to 3 November. The exercise is part of expanding military cooperation between Turkey and Egypt, which includes defence industry agreements, technology transfers, exchanges of senior military officials and joint training programmes.

The two countries resumed the Sea of Friendship exercises in September 2025 at the Aksaz naval base in Muğla, south-western Turkey, after a 13-year hiatus. Their suspension had been linked to deteriorating relations between Ankara and Cairo following the overthrow of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-led government, which Cairo designates as a terrorist organisation.

Following the normalisation of bilateral relations in 2024, Turkey and Egypt signed a letter of intent on defence cooperation in July 2026, during a visit to Ankara by Egyptian Defence Minister Ashraf Salem Zaher. Zaher held talks with his Turkish counterpart, Yaşar Güler, on expanding cooperation in joint military training, defence equipment production, technology transfers and the exchange of expertise.

The expansion of military cooperation between Turkey and Egypt comes as disagreements over the delimitation of maritime zones in the eastern Mediterranean have returned to the forefront. On 20 October, Libya’s House of Representatives ratified the memorandum delimiting maritime zones that Turkey and Libya’s then Government of National Accord, led by Fayez al-Sarraj, signed on 27 November 2019.

The agreement continues to be disputed by neighbouring countries and the European Union, which argue that it violates international law and disregards the rights of Greek islands to maritime zones. Ankara has revived its proposal for a maritime delimitation agreement with Egypt, according to Turkish claims, which could secure Cairo more than 15,000 additional square kilometres of maritime jurisdiction compared with a possible equivalent agreement with Greece.