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KHARTOUM, Nov.21 (Xinhua) – Sudan has decided not to participate in a ministerial meeting scheduled for Saturday in relation to the Great Renaissance Dam of Ethiopia (GERD).
“Sudan has decided not to participate in the ministerial meeting on GERD, which was scheduled to be convened on Saturday afternoon,” Sudan’s Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources said in a statement on Saturday.
According to the statement, Sudan’s Minister of Irrigation and Water, Yasir Abbas, sent a message to his Ethiopian counterpart, Seleshi Bekele, reiterating Sudan’s demand for a greater role from African Union experts to facilitate negotiations and reduce the gap between the three parts. .
“The trading method adopted during the last rounds has proven ineffective,” Abbas said in the statement.
He noted Sudan’s adherence to the African Union negotiation process to reach a satisfactory and binding legal agreement in accordance with the principle of “African solutions to African problems”.
On Thursday, the foreign and irrigation ministers of Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia held a video meeting to review the means of resuming talks on outstanding GERD-related issues.
Sudanese negotiators believe that the GERD talks should go beyond the level of the irrigation ministers and refer to the African Union and the leaders of the three countries to provide political will to bring their positions closer together.
The Sudanese delegation is also calling for US and African Union observers to be granted mediator status, a move Egypt and Ethiopia appear not to be interested in.
Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia have been negotiating under the African Union on technical and legal issues related to the filling and operation of the GERD.
Ethiopia, which began building the GERD in 2011, expects to produce more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity from the project, while Egypt and Sudan, countries downstream of the Nile basin that depend on the river for fresh water, are concerned about that the dam may affect its Water Resources. Final product
