[ad_1]
On Sunday, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed to hold bilateral meetings between the three countries and the group of experts and observers for a period of one week, following the resumption of negotiations that had been suspended to resolve the dispute over the Great Dam of the Ethiopian Renaissance.
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 Sunday, a meeting was held between the Ministers of Water and Foreign Affairs of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia on the Renaissance dam via video conferencing technology, chaired by South Africa in its capacity as current president of the African Union.
“The meeting concluded with the adoption of Sudan’s proposal that this week be devoted to bilateral meetings between the three countries and the group of experts and observers,” the Sudanese news agency “SUNA” said.
Khartoum pulled out of negotiations last November, demanding that African Union experts play a greater role in the negotiations to reach a binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam.
The agency added that South Africa’s Minister for International Cooperation, Guy Pandora, who moderated the meeting, requested that “these meetings be dedicated to identifying points of agreement and disagreement between the three countries, provided that the tripartite meetings resume next Sunday, with the hope that the negotiations will conclude at the end of this month of January and before the end of the presidency. ” South Africa for the African Union session. “
In a statement, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said it had agreed to hold another six-party ministerial meeting led by South Africa to consider the results of the tripartite round of negotiations.
Egypt stressed during the meeting, according to the statement, the need to reach an agreement on the Renaissance dam as soon as possible, before the start of the second phase of filling the dam reservoir, in a way that achieves the common interests of the three countries and at the same time secure Egypt’s water rights and interests.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry released images of the launch of the meeting between the water and foreign ministers of the three countries via video conferencing technology.
Now passes … the beginning of the activities of the meeting, which is carried out by videoconference of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Irrigation of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to resume the negotiations on the filling and operation. #AlNahda Dam, With the participation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs #Sameh Shoukry And the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation d. Mohamed Abdel Ati. pic.twitter.com/fKwKS46SMX
– Egypt MFA Spokesperson (@MfaEgypt) January 3, 2021
This dam, which will be used to generate electricity, raises disputes, especially with Egypt, which relies on the Nile River for 97 percent of its water needs.
Ethiopia stresses 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.
[ad_2]
