Cairo – Mubasher: Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Mohamed Abdel Ati, the Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, participated in the six-party meeting held today of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Water of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia, headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Africa, in her capacity as the current President of the Executive Council of the African Union.
In a statement issued today, Sunday, during the meeting, Egypt affirmed its readiness to engage in serious and effective negotiations in order to reach, as quickly as possible, a binding legal agreement on the rules for filling and operating the Renaissance Dam, in implementation of the decisions of the meetings of the African Union Bureau that were held at the summit level during the months. The last meeting to consult on the issue of the Renaissance Dam, in a way that achieves the common interests of the three countries, and preserves and secures Egypt’s water rights and interests.
The ministry added that the meeting failed to achieve any progress due to disagreements over how to resume negotiations and the procedural aspects related to managing the negotiating process, as Sudan adhered to the necessity of assigning experts appointed by the African Union Commission to propose solutions to the controversial issues and crystallize the Renaissance Dam agreement, a proposal that every party has reservations about. From Egypt and Ethiopia.
She explained that this is an affirmation of the three countries’ ownership of the negotiating process and to preserve their right to formulate the texts and provisions of the agreement to fill and operate the Renaissance Dam, especially since the African Union experts are not specialists in the technical and engineering fields related to water resources management and dam operation.
For her part, the South African Foreign Minister expressed her regret for not achieving the hoped-for breakthrough in the negotiations and stated that she will submit a report to President Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa, on what the discussions witnessed and their results, in order to consider the measures that can be taken to deal with this issue in the coming period.
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