Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told his South African counterpart, Naledi Pandor, that Cairo has shown positive engagement and good faith in the talks with Sudan and Ethiopia on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
“Egypt’s positive engagement and its good faith in the negotiation aims to reach a fair agreement on filling and operating the dam, so that it would achieve Ethiopia's development goals without causing harm to Egypt's water interests,” the Foreign Minister said.
On the sidelines of the 36th session of the Executive Council of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Shoukry discussed with Pandor the latest results of the tripartite consultations between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia on GERD.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ahemd Hafez said in a statement that the Shoukry-Pandor meeting also tackled bilateral relations between two countries and mutual cooperation on African Union affairs, mainly peace.
Last month, Addis Ababa said it asked South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to mediate to find solutions to the disagreement on the dam.
In the coming days, Egypt prepares to hand over the AU presidency to South Africa for the year 2020.
Since last November, the US Treasury has been sponsoring talks between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, with the participation of the World Bank.
Officials from the three countries had on two occasions in January delayed the signing of a deal to resolve the dam dispute.
Foreign ministers and water resources officials of the three states held four-days of talks in Washington last week to address the issue. They reached a final understanding to sign the deal by the end of February.
Last week, in a joint statement with the US and World Bank, the African officials announced that they agreed on a schedule for the staged filling of the dam and mitigation mechanisms to adjust its filling and operation during dry periods and drought.
On Thursday, Ethiopia said it expects to resolve its dispute with Egypt and reassured Ethiopians that Addis Ababa will never sign an agreement that harms the country’s national interest.
