Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry has said that Ethiopia obstructs efforts to reach a legally binding framework for the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Shoukry’s remarks came during his speech in the annual conference of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs on Saturday.
The theme of the conference focused on the repercussions of the Russian / Ukrainian crisis on the Middle East and Egypt.
Ahmed Abu Zeid, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that during his speech, Minister Shoukry expressed his pride in the significant successes achieved by Egyptian diplomacy, pointing to the crises and challenges witnessed in 2022, the latest of which is the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.
Shoukry reviewed the most important determinants of the Egyptian position on that crisis, and Egypt’s strenuous efforts to interact at the bilateral and multilateral levels to contain the negative economic repercussions resulting from the Ukrainian crisis on the Egyptian economy.
He touched upon the Egyptian point of view calling for defending the multilateral collective action system and warning against the consequences of international action outside it by seeking to establish new rules outside this system.
The minister stressed the need to review and develop the concept of international security in such a way that the values of dialogue, cooperation and understanding of the needs of the other overcome the logic of force and disregard, taking into account the political, economic, cultural and security rights of others, in order to prevent emerging conflicts from turning into protracted conflicts.
The minister of Foreign Affairs also stressed the importance of preserving the concept of the national state, addressing the most prominent challenges witnessed by Egypt’s regional neighbors in Libya, Sudan and Palestine, in addition to the humanitarian, economic and social repercussions imposed by the challenges of climate change, which have become additional burdens on states, governments and peoples.
He also pointed out Egypt’s launch of its national climate change Strategy 2050 in May 2022, and its continuous efforts to rely on new and renewable energy sources along with traditional energy resources, in addition to the most prominent successes achieved by Egypt through hosting the COP27 climate conference.
The Foreign Minister also stressed the serious water security challenge facing the Middle East and the African continent, some of whose countries are located in the driest and most desert regions of the world, as this challenge comes in conjunction with the desire of some upstream countries to monopolize and control the water resource without regard to the capabilities of other riparian countries.
