GERD talks find no breakthrough for 7th straight day

Mohammed El-Said
2 Min Read

Negotiations between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) are ongoing for the seventh day in a row but a breakthrough has yet to be reached.

Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said, on Thursday, that the delegations of the three countries have agreed to send three separate reports on the talks and each country’s viewpoints, to South Africa, the current rotational president of the African Union (AU).

During the Thursday talks, the delegates showcased the results of discussions by technical and legal teams on Tuesday in order to bring different viewpoints close. 

Negotiations are expected to last until 13 July on both the technical and legal levels. 

On Friday, the three states’ technical and legal teams will continue their meetings, while on Saturday the delegations of each country will meet with the international observers separately. On Sunday, a ministerial meeting will be held hoping for a consensus. 

The current round of talks was launched last Friday under the sponsorship of the AU.

The AU’s Assembly Bureau and representatives from AU member states, the US, and the European Union are also participating in the meetings. 

Egypt repeatedly said that the Ethiopian hydroelectric dam talks remain unsuccessful due to the Ethiopian rigorous stance regarding technical issues, which decreases the chances for agreement over GERD.

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Mohammed El-Said is the Science Editor for the Daily News Egypt with over 8 years of experience as a journalist. His work appeared in the Science Magazine, Nature Middle East, Scientific American Arabic Edition, SciDev and other regional and international media outlets. El-Said graduated with a bachelor's degree and MSc in Human Geography, and he is a PhD candidate in Human Geography at Cairo University. He also had a diploma in media translation from the American University in Cairo.