CAIRO, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced on Friday that Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad will hold talks with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry on Saturday.

It is the first visit by a top Syrian diplomat to Egypt since the start of the Syrian civil war about 12 years ago.

Strained relations between Syria and Arab countries have started to ease after the deadly earthquakes jolted large swathes of areas along the Turkish-Syrian border on Feb. 6 and killed tens of thousands of people in the two countries.

On Feb. 27, Shoukry met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus to express Egypt's support for Syria in dealing with the repercussions of the earthquakes and its willingness to strengthen bilateral relations.