The foreign ministers and negotiating teams of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia met on Saturday in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, to continue the talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The meeting was part of the agreed four-month timeframe to finalize the agreement on the rules of filling and operating the dam.
The talks came after Ethiopia announced two weeks ago that it had completed the fourth and final phase of filling the dam, despite the objections of Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia did not disclose the amount of water it had stored or the implications of its unilateral action.
Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Hani Sweilam, said that Egypt was committed to the negotiations with seriousness and good intentions, aiming to reach a fair and balanced agreement that would protect its water security and interests, while also ensuring the development and cooperation of the three countries.
Sweilam also said that Ethiopia’s filling of the dam without an agreement was a violation of the Declaration of Principles signed in 2015 and that it threatened to undermine the current negotiating process. He stressed the importance of finding technical and legal solutions that would allow reaching a binding legal agreement on the rules of filling and operating the dam.
