Egypt and New Zealand share a brief common history in the fact that both nations formed part of the British Empire. The first official contact between Egypt and New Zealand was during World War I when in October 1914, troops from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force landed in Egypt and assisted in repulsing an Ottoman attack on the Suez Canal in February 1915. During the war, New Zealand forces partook in the Senussi Campaign and Sinai and Palestine Campaigns. After the war, in February 1922, Egypt obtained its independence from the United Kingdom after the issuance of the "Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence".