Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry met Saturday with his Ethiopian counterpart Workineh Gebeyehu, on the margin of meetings of the executive council of the African Union in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, according to a statement issued by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Abou Zaid.
The two sides discussed bilateral relations, the trilateral cooperation between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia, and developments of the Renaissance Dam and the technical committee which follows the studies of the Dam’s impacts on the downstream countries. Also, they agreed to the importance of beginning preparations for the high common committee between the two countries at the presidential level and coordinating with Sudan about the optimum way for the trilateral investment fund to start working on implementing projects in favour of the three countries, the statement read.
Regarding the Renaissance Dam, Shoukry asserted to his Ethiopian counterpart Egypt’s high interest in ending the technical course of the Dam’s impacts on Egypt and facilitating the process of ending these studies on time.
Shoukry stressed that Egypt is the main part that will be affected by building and operating the dam if not taking the Egyptian concerns into consideration. Also, he renewed Egypt’s demand for an immediate meeting of the trilateral technical committee between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia on the ministerial level to provide the necessary guidelines for the technical committee to take the right decision towards the initial report, which was applied by the consulting firm, to ensure achieving progress in preparing studies on the agreed time.
According to the statement, the discussion between the two foreign ministers was clear, and the Ethiopian minister asserted his country’s commitment to cooperation with Egypt to continue the technical course and ending the studies on time, as well as Ethiopia’s commitment to the principles declaration.
