APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Latest talks over the mega dam that Ethiopia has been building on the Nile River’s main tributary have ended without an agreement, APA can report.
The two-day talks between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt on the disputed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) ended on Tuesday night in Cairo, the Egyptian capital.
The three countries have been holding a series of talks to reach a three-part agreement on guidelines and rules for the filling and annual operation of the dam.
Chief Negotiator Ambassador Seleshi Bekele led the Ethiopian delegation in the third round of negotiations in Cairo while Water and Irrigation Ministers of Egypt and Sudan, Hani Sewilam and Dawelbeit Abdelrahman, led their respective countries in the talks.
The delegations of the three countries were expected to sort out “unresolved technical and legal differences” during the talks on Monday and Tuesday but failed to reach any outcome.
They conducted “intensive negotiations to find areas of convergence to conclude agreement,” the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
The ministry did not disclose if any progress was made.
However, the negotiation will continue in Addis Ababa where they will hold the next meeting in December 2023, Bekele was quoted as saying.
“Ethiopia remains committed to reaching a win-win outcome based on the cardinal principle of equitable and reasonable utilization of the Nile River,” he said.
Ethiopia’s €3.48-billion hydro-power dam project on Abay River, the main tributary of the River Nile, has been a source of diplomatic standoff among the three nations ever since its launch in 2011.
Egypt and to some lesser extent Sudan fear that their natural water share from Africa’s longest river will be compromised by the dam.
Ethiopia has dismissed this fear as misguided.
MG/as/APA