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10:24 p. M.
Sunday, January 10, 2021
Books – Muhammad Safwat:
On Sunday, the Renaissance dam negotiations reached a dead end after the foreign and irrigation ministers of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia failed to reach an acceptable formula for continuing negotiations on the controversial Ethiopian dam.
The South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Guy Pandor, whose country is chairing the current session of the African Union, which sponsors and promotes the negotiations, expressed regret at the dead end that the negotiations have reached, indicating that he will raise the matter to the president of the current session of the African Union, Cyril Ramaphosa, to “take what is needed.”
Sudan announces failure of negotiations
Commenting on today’s negotiations, Sudan issued a statement in which it emphasized the need to change the methodology of the negotiations and give a greater role to experts, who can play a key role in facilitating the negotiations and connecting the dots. of view between the three parties in the crisis.
Sudan’s Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas said: “We cannot continue this vicious cycle of discussions indefinitely, given the direct threat posed by the Renaissance dam to the Rossaires reservoir, whose storage capacity is less than 10% of the capacity of Renaissance Dam, if filled and operated without Daily Agreement and data sharing.
Sudan today presented a strong protest to Ethiopia and the African Union over the letter from the Ethiopian Minister of Irrigation to the Union, sent on January 8, during which he confirmed his country’s intention to continue the process of filling the dam on next July, at about 13.5 billion cubic meters, regardless of an agreement being reached. Or the lack of it.
Sudan had decided to suspend its previous participation in the ongoing negotiations on the Renaissance Dam, but retracted its decision, after a bilateral meeting held by the Sudanese delegation with the African Union team of experts.
Egypt is ready to enter into 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 implementation of the decisions of the Board meetings. meetings of the African Union that were held at the summit level in recent months to consult on the Renaissance Dam issue. And in a way that achieves the common interests of all three countries and preserves and ensures Egypt’s water rights and interests.
In a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he announced that 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, since Sudan insisted on the need to assign experts appointed by the African Union Commission to propose solutions to contentious issues and draw up the agreement for the Renaissance Dam, which is the proposal. On which Egypt and Ethiopia have reservations, confirming the ownership of the three countries of the negotiation process and to preserve 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 do not are specialists in the engineering and technical fields related to water resource management and dam operation.
Ethiopia shows understanding of Sudan’s concerns
In a statement to its Foreign Ministry, Ethiopia said that despite Sudan’s previous insistence on holding meetings with experts from the African Union, it objected to its terms of reference and refused to include them in the meeting, leading to the actual suspension of conversations.
And the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry announced that Sudan had rejected the African Union’s proposal to hold a bilateral meeting with African experts.
The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry stated, in its statement, that Sudan complied with the condition that experts play a more important role in the negotiations.
Ethiopia announced its readiness to respond to Sudan’s concerns about the safety of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, adding that it immediately took the initiative to establish an effective data-sharing mechanism.
She blamed Sudan for the failure of the current round of negotiations, while adhering to a more important role for experts, and pointed to the collapse of last week’s talks for not participating in Khartoum.
