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A statement from the European Union’s External Action Service considered that the resumption of talks on the Renaissance dam would provide an important opportunity to move towards an agreement on filling the dam.
While the Sudan News Agency stated that the Sudanese proposal aimed at activating the negotiations will discuss giving a greater role to the African Union through its experts to reach a binding legal agreement. He added that the meeting will consider the draft understanding prepared by the AU experts in order to reach a satisfactory agreement for the three parties.
Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Dina Mufti had made clear in earlier statements that South Africa, which chairs the African Union, invited the three affected countries to a meeting on the Renaissance dam on Sunday.
The Al Arabiya correspondent in Cairo reported that Egypt’s foreign and irrigation ministers will participate in the meeting, which will resume after a month’s break.
On Sunday, Sudan joins the new round of talks with Egypt and Ethiopia in an attempt to resolve the dispute over the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile.
The three countries have held several rounds of talks since Ethiopia began implementing the project in 2011, but have so far failed to reach an agreement on filling and operating the massive reservoir behind the 145-meter-long Renaissance Dam.
The latest round of negotiations, conducted by videoconference, ended in early November, with no progress.
On Thursday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry summoned the Charge d’Affaires to the Ethiopian Embassy in Cairo to request clarification on the statements of the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Egypt’s internal affairs.
The European Union has expressed its support for South Africa’s efforts to find a solution to the Renaissance dam crisis and has called on all parties to see the importance of returning to negotiations.
The European Union’s Foreign Action Service quoted the Union’s foreign and security policy representative, Josep Borrell, as saying that the agreement to fill Ethiopia’s Great Renaissance Dam is in the hands of the three countries: Ethiopia , Sudan and Egypt.
He stressed that “it is time to act, not to inflame tensions.”
Borrell added that the union fully supports the efforts of South Africa, the current AU president, to get the three parties to reach a negotiated solution.
“The European Union looks forward to the imminent resumption and successful conclusion of the Renaissance Dam talks,” Borrell said.
This dam, which will be used to generate electricity, raises disputes, especially with Egypt, which depends on the Nile River for 97% of its water needs. Ethiopia highlights that the hydroelectric power produced at the dam is necessary to meet the energy needs of its population of more than 100 million people. He insists that downstream water supplies will not be affected.
Sudan, which suffered severe flooding last summer as the Blue Nile reached its highest level since record levels began more than a century ago, hopes the new dam will help regulate the river’s flow.
The Blue Nile, which meets the White Nile in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, supplies the vast majority of the Nile’s water that flows through northern Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean.
