The United Arab Emirates is set to mediate after stalled talks between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan over the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), according to information reaching APA on Wednesday.
Sources say the Gulf country is making preparations to mediate in the resumed talks between the three countries in the intervening few weeks.
The United Arab Emirates is striving to make a “constructive role” in the GERD talk.
The UAE aims to resolve points of disagreement regarding GERD, according to the source.
As part of its preparation to mediate the talk, UAE has organised a team of technical experts.
Its Minister for African Affairs, Sheikh Shakhboot Bin Nahyan, is said to be in charge of the mediation, which is expected to take place in Abu Dhabi.
The negotiation on GERD was happening under the auspices of the African Union with the aim of providing an “African solution to an African problem”.
This was after Ethiopia rejected the U.S. brokered talks as Addis Ababa became suspicious that Washington was in favour of its ally Egypt in its position over the controversial dam being built over the Nile.
Negotiation within the framework of AU had been going on for over a year but no agreement was reached.
Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates have forged strong bilateral ties after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018.
PM Ahmed’s government has been receiving financial and military aid from the Emirates.
Ethiopia has been advocating for the principle of African solutions to African problems and it is unclear why Ethiopia agreed to GERD talks that would take the matter out of Africa once again.
The United Arab Emirates has investments worth billions of dollars in Ethiopia.
It is also said to have an interest in Sudan in relation to food security and investment in the agricultural section.
Addis Ababa says Egypt and Sudan have been advancing positions that would compromise Ethiopia’s sovereign right to use water from the Nile (Abbay) over 85 percent of which originates from its highlands.
In July 2021, Ethiopia conducted the second phase of filling the reservoir of the dam despite disagreements from Egypt and Sudan.
The Ethiopian dam currently has over 18 billion cubic meters of water.
Ethiopia has started an early generation of power from the project with two turbines.
MG/as/APA