President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi reviewed the latest developments of the negotiations on Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on Wednesday.
Al-Sisi held a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Defence Mohamed Zaki, Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Mohamed Abdel-Ati, and Abbas Kamel, Head of General Intelligence Services.
Presidency spokesperson Bassam Radi said that the meeting dealt the current preparations for the next round of meetings in Washington DC on January 28-29 to finalize a comprehensive agreement on the filling and operation of the GERD.
Meanwhile, technical and legal discussions over the dam started in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia on Wednesday.
According to Egypt’s Ministry of Irrigation, the meeting is expected to include cooperation on the filling and operation of GERD, dispute settlement mechanisms, and the operation policy regarding the changes in the annual Nile flood.
The last round of talks in Washington concluded on the agreement that the filling of GERD will be executed in stages and will be undertaken adaptively and cooperatively that takes into consideration the hydrological conditions of the Blue Nile and the potential impact of the filling on downstream reservoirs.
During Washington’s meeting, the three sides have agreed to entrust the US and the World Bank with the preparation of the final agreement on the filling and operation of the GERD, according to a statement by the five parties. These negotiations have finally ended long years of stalemate.
Ethiopia intends to start filling the dam at the end of this year, and the filling process will take 4-7 years to complete.
