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The parties involved in the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations are expected to resume meetings on Sunday under the supervision of the African Union (AU). Last week, the AU called on the three countries involved in the Ethiopian dam negotiations, namely Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, to resume talks on the disputed technical and legal points of the Ethiopian dam. None of the three parties has confirmed their participation so far.
The latest round of negotiations on the Ethiopian dam was observed by the AU Assembly Bureau, representatives of the AU member states, the United States (US) and the European Union (EU).
If carried out, Sunday’s meeting will be the first meeting of 2021 and will come after a year of misunderstandings and disagreements between the parties involved. Tripartite negotiations have also been suspended for more than a month.
The suspension of the talks came after Sudan decided not to participate in a ministerial meeting on the dam in late November.
Sudan’s Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources demanded a bigger role for experts under the umbrella of the AU, to facilitate negotiations and narrow the gap between the three parties.
“The negotiating method adopted during the last rounds has proven ineffective,” the ministry said in a statement.
Khartoum announced in mid-December that it is ready to resume talks. Dina Mufti, a spokeswoman for the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry, said during the ministry’s weekly press conference on Tuesday that the upcoming meeting is considered a “time competition.”
On Thursday, Sudan’s Foreign Minister Omar Qamar Al-Din warned Ethiopia not to start the second phase of filling the dam reservoir without an agreement with Cairo and Khartoum, “as happened in the first phase of fill”.
Ethiopia announced the start of the first filling of the dam on July 21, without notifying downstream countries of the event. Addis Ababa claimed the fill was due to heavy rains on the Ethiopian plateau.
The expected round of 2021 talks will come amid tensions between the parties as Ethiopia is about to go to war with Sudan over disputed borders. There are also bilateral diplomatic tensions between Ethiopia and Egypt.
Last week, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry summoned the Ethiopian Chargé d’Affaires to Cairo to provide clarification on the latest statements by the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Egypt’s internal affairs. The Egyptian ministry described the statements as unacceptable and “flagrant transgression”.
Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, under the auspices of the AU, have been negotiating on technical and legal issues related to the filling and operation of the Ethiopian dam.
Ethiopia, which began building the dam in 2011, expects to produce more than 6,000 MW of electricity from the project. Meanwhile, Egypt and Sudan, downstream Nile basin countries that depend on the river for their freshwater needs, are concerned that the dam could affect their water resources.
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