Egypt And Ethiopia Agree To Resume Negotiations On Nile Dam

By Gobran Mohamed

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed held face-to-face talks to debate the stalemate in negotiations over the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the way it is likely to be overcome.

Because of this, they agreed to renew negotiations and attain an settlement inside 4 months.

The leaders met at Cairo’s Al-Ittihadiya Palace on Wednesday night time, shortly after Ahmed arrived in Egypt for a summit of the leaders of Sudan’s seven neighboring international locations. El-Sisi hosted the gathering on Thursday within the hope of discovering a path to peace in Sudan, the place rival navy factions have been combating since mid-April.

Egypt and Sudan have lengthy been at odds with Ethiopia over its building of the large hydroelectric dam, amid fears that it’ll prohibit the quantity of water flowing down the Nile to them, with doubtlessly devastating outcomes.

Based on a joint assertion issued by the Egyptian presidency after the assembly on Wednesday, El-Sisi and Ahmed agreed on two details.

Firstly, “to provoke expedited negotiations to finalize the settlement between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan on the filling of the GERD and the foundations of its operations, and they’re going to make all the mandatory efforts to finalize it in 4 months.”

Secondly, “throughout the interval of those negotiations, Ethiopia has indicated its dedication throughout the filling of the GERD throughout the hydrological yr 2023-2024 to not trigger important hurt to Egypt and Sudan in a fashion that gives the water wants of each international locations.”

The 2 leaders additionally reiterated their “mutual political will to boost the bilateral relations politically, economically and culturally.”

This want to spice up ties “is predicated on the widespread want to realize their mutual pursuits and the prosperity of the 2 brotherly individuals, which can even actively contribute to the soundness, peace and safety of the area and their mutual capacity to take care of widespread challenges.”

The dam is on the Blue Nile, one in all two main tributaries that feed the Nile, in western Ethiopia simply 10 kilometers from the border with Sudan. Egypt and Sudan have known as for a legally binding settlement on how the dam will function and stuffed however Ethiopian authorities have thus far rejected such a proposal and say the dam is essential to financial improvement and energy era within the nation.

Egypt obtains greater than 90 % of its scarce contemporary water from the Nile and fears the dam might devastate its economic system if the movement is decreased. Filling of the dam started in mid-2020 and is continuous in phases, a course of that’s anticipated to take a number of years.