Egypt, Ethiopia await Sudan’s approval to hold GERD meeting

BY

-

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 - 12:32 GMT

BY

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 - 12:32 GMT

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project – Courtesy of UKRHYDROPROJECT PRJSC official website

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project – Courtesy of UKRHYDROPROJECT PRJSC official website

CAIRO – 30 April 2018: Egypt has accepted Ethiopia’s proposal to hold a high-level technical committee meeting on May 4, and the two countries are waiting for Sudan’s approval to join them in the meeting, according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid.

In a phone call to the talk show “Masr Enaharda” (Egypt Today), he added that the negotiations aim to reach a consensus over the technical issues of the dam after Ethiopia had opposed the report prepared by the consultative office over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

In this regard, he mentioned that Egypt is concerned with foot-dragging to reach a study on the GERD, stressing that Ethiopia has proposed resuming the technical committee meetings urgently, and Egypt has accepted in this regard.

Egypt had invited the ministers of foreign affairs and irrigation, as well as heads of the intelligence agencies of Ethiopia and Sudan for another round of talks about the GERD, which were scheduled to be held on April 20 in Cairo.

“Unfortunately, Ethiopia and Sudan have not responded to the invitation sent by Egypt to resume the negotiations over the Renaissance Dam and we lost another chance to reach a solution for the dam’s technical problem,” said Shoukry on April 19 during an interview with Extra News.

Shoukry stressed that Egypt has exerted efforts during the Khartoum-based talks and negotiated with goodwill to launch initiatives that would meet the interests of the three countries.

He confirmed that Egypt has dealt with transparency and positivity toward the negotiations and reaching a consensus among the three countries, and “any attempts to prove the contrary are deviations from the truth regarding the main reason behind hindering the talks.”

Shoukry denied allegations that Egypt “hindered” an agreement on the dam from being concluded during the last round of negotiations held in Khartoum.

Shoukry headed a delegation to Khartoum on April 11 to attend the ninth meeting in Khartoum and to resume the talks that aimed to ease Egypt’s concerns over the controversial dam.

The meetings were resumed after a four-month hiatus due to a disagreement over technical issues related to the dam’s impact on the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan.

Later, a round of discussions over the controversial dam between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in Khartoum were announced a failure. The Egyptian foreign minister said no agreement was reached after 18 hours of talks; he added that officials touched on all the outstanding issues that led to such controversy.

Comments

0

Leave a Comment

Be Social