Trump says he succeeded in averting potential war between Egypt, Ethiopia over controversial dam

CAIRO – 21 September 2025: US President Donald Trump asserted that he succeeded in averting a potential war between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) issue.

In his Sunday speech at the Founder's Dinner of the fourth annual American Cornerstone Institute at the Mount Vernon estate in Virginia, Trump said, "They built a dam in Ethiopia that affects the Nile River, and I think it is a big problem."

During a press conference with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the White House on July 14, 2025, 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 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 do not 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 important source of income in life. It is the life of Egypt and to take that away is pretty incredible. But we think that we are going to solve it very quickly,” he added.

On September 9, 2025, Egypt, represented by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Migration Badr Abdelatty, sent an official letter to the president of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday in response to Ethiopia’s recent event celebrating the completion and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Cairo emphasized that the move constitutes a clear breach of international law and established norms.

The foreign minister stressed that Ethiopia’s attempts to give the dam a false veneer of legitimacy cannot alter the fact that it remains a unilateral action in violation of international law. He affirmed that such actions produce no legal consequences regarding the governing framework of the Eastern Nile Basin under international law.

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 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.