Trump: US works on solving problem of GERD, the Nile is the life of Egypt

CAIR0 – 14 July 2025: US President Donald Trump said on Monday that his administration is working to solve the dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia regarding the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which will be officially inaugurated in September despite Egypt and Sudan rejection.

During a press conference with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the White House, President Trump said that the US administration is working with Ethiopia to solve this problem, saying “I think if I am Egypt, I want to have water into the Nile and we are working on that one. It is a problem but it is going to get be solved. It [Ethiopia] built one of the biggest dams in the world. A little bit outside of Egypt […] that turned out to be a big problem.”

“I think, the United States is funding the dam. I don’t know why they did not solve it before building the dam. But it is nice when the Nile River has water. […] it is a very importance source of income in life. It is the life of Egypt and take that away is pretty incredible. But we think that we going to solve it very quickly,” he added.

On July 3, 2025, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced at the Parliament that the official inauguration of the dam was set in next September. The announcement stands defiant against the Egyptian and Sudanese rejections to the unilateral operation and administration of the dam as it would affect the water share of the two downstream countries.

Brief on the dispute

The crisis between the three Nile basin countries dates back to May 2011 when Ethiopia started building the dam; Egypt voiced concern over its water share [55.5 billion cubic meters]. Three years later, a series of tripartite talks between the two countries along with Sudan began to reach an agreement while Ethiopia continued the dam construction. 

In 2015, the three countries signed the Declaration of Principles, per which the downstream countries [Egypt and Sudan] should not be negatively affected by the construction of the dam. 

In October 2019, Egypt blamed Addis Ababa for hindering a final agreement concerning a technical problem, calling for activating the Article No. 10 of the Declaration of Principles, which stipulates that if the three countries could not find a solution to these differences, they have to ask for mediation. Despite Egypt’s repeated rejections, Ethiopia continued its unilateral acts and filled the reservoir of its dam annually without going back to Egypt or Sudan.