The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Cairo explained its vision on regulations that should be adopted to fill and operate the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which Ethiopia is building, during talks with US officials.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdel Atti are currently in Washington with the foreign and water ministers of Sudan and Ethiopia to hold a series of talks with US officials over the dam.
The meetings are attended US treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and World Bank President David Malpass.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Hafez said US and Egyptian officials held prolonged talks during which the Egyptian side elaborated its vision on regulations that should be adopted to fill and operate the dam.
Later, a meeting was held between the Egyptian, Ethiopian and Sudanese ministers for foreign affairs and water.
Washington hosted two-day GERD discussions on Monday and Tuesday with hopes to reach a final agreement between the three concerned countries over the dam before mid-January.
Four previous rounds of the tripartite meetings held between the water ministers of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, Cairo and Khartoum, failed to reach a solution to the deadlock.
The three countries aim to revive Article No. 10 of the Declaration of Principles, which stipulates that if the three countries could not find a solution to these differences, they have to ask for mediation.
In 2015, the three states signed the Declaration of Principles, per which the downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, should not be negatively affected by the construction of the dam.
While Cairo is enthusiastic about Washington’s mediation, Ethiopia suggested a few days ago that South Africa takes part in the talks, as a mediator.
Ethiopia started building the dam in 2011on the Blue Nile to generate electricity.
Egypt fears that the dam would cause harm to its water share in the Nile.
