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6:29 pm
Sunday, January 10, 2021
Agencies
Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Aty, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, participated in the six-party meeting held today Sunday of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Water of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, led by the South African Minister of Foreign Affairs, in her capacity as current President of the Executive Council of the African Union.
According to the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued after the round of negotiations, during the meeting, Egypt affirmed its willingness to enter into serious and effective negotiations in order to reach as soon as possible a legally binding agreement on the rules for the filling and operation of The Renaissance Dam, in compliance with the decisions of the meetings of the Bureau of the African Union held at the summit level during the last months to consult on the subject of the Renaissance Dam, in a way that achieves the common interests of the three countries and preserve and secure Egypt’s water rights and interests.
The meeting did not achieve any progress due to disagreements on how to resume negotiations and procedural aspects related to the management of the negotiation process, as Sudan insisted on the need to entrust the experts appointed by the African Union Commission to propose solutions to controversial issues and work out the Renaissance Dam agreement, a proposal to which Egypt and Ethiopia had reservations. This is a confirmation of the ownership of the three countries of the negotiation process and of the preservation of their right to formulate the texts and provisions of the agreement to fill and operate the Renaissance Dam, especially since the experts of the African Union are not specialists in engineering and technical fields related to water resource management and dam operation.
For her part, the South African Minister for Foreign Affairs regretted that the expected progress in the negotiations had not been achieved and stated that she would present a report to President Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa, on what the talks and their discussions had witnessed. results, in order to consider what steps could be taken to address this issue in the next period. .
