APA- Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) The governments of Addis Ababa and Cairo have agreed to resume the trilateral talks over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), being built on the River Nile.
The agreement to resume the trilateral talks was reached during a meeting between President Abdel Fattah al Sisi and Prime Minister Ably Ahmed in Cairo.
The construction of the Dam, which is now 90 percent complete, has been a source of a decade-long diplomatic standoff between Ethiopia and downstream nations Egypt and Sudan.
The last trilateral talks failed to yield a three-way agreement on the dam’s filling and operations. Cairo insists that Addis Ababa should cease filling the reservoir until such a deal is reached – a position Ethiopia sees as contradictory to previously agreed principles.
Last year, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed to settle their differences over the Dam through negotiations while Egypt stalled and used Arab league nations as platforms to criticize the hydroelectric project.
On Wednesday, the meeting between the leaders of Ethiopia and Egypt helped to break the stalemate over the negotiation.
In a joint statement Friday the two leaders “reiterated their mutual political will to enhance the bilateral relations between their two countries, politically, economically and culturally.
They will do so, the statement says, “based on the common desire to achieve their mutual interests and the prosperity of the two brotherly people, and which will also actively contribute to the stability, peace and security of the region, and their mutual ability to deal with common challenges.”
MG/as/APA