Egypt will not compromise its ‘existential’ water security: Abdelatty to Blinken

CAIRO – 9 October 2024: Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty stressed that Egypt will not compromise its water security, which constitutes an “existential” issue for the country, as he made a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week.

Abdelatty emphasized to Blinken the necessity of reaching a legally binding agreement on the operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and adhering to international law in this matter, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

In response, Blinken reaffirmed the United States' commitment to supporting Egyptian water security.

Talks breakdown

Egypt and Sudan have engaged in talks with Ethiopia for more than a decade in a bid to secure a binding agreement concerning the GERD to protect their water rights. However, Addis Ababa proceeded with dam filling and operation without the two downstream countries’ consent.

Egypt announced last year that the revived negotiation track over the long-standing dam dispute concluded, as the fourth and final trilateral round of failed to produce positive results.

Egypt attributed the breakdown to Ethiopia's persistent refusal of proposed middle-ground technical or legal solutions to safeguard the interests of all three countries.

Engaging UN

In September, Abdelatty addressed a letter to the president of the United Nations Security Council, condemning Ethiopia's recent actions regarding GERD as a continuation of its provocative stance toward its neighbors.

He added that such actions "threaten the stability of a region, where most countries seek to enhance cooperation and integration among each other rather than sow discord among peoples bound by ties of brotherhood and shared destiny."

Later in September, Abdelatty raised the GERD issue before the high-level General Debate of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 79), stating that Egypt “will not turn a blind eye” to a threat to its existence.

Given Egypt's heavy reliance on the Nile for its water requirements, the country perceives the dam as a significant threat to its already strained water supply.

Egypt grapples with severe water shortages with a per capita water supply of around 550 cubic meters per year—well below the globally recognized threshold for water scarcity set at 1,000 cubic meters per person.

‘Red line’

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has stressed Egypt’s water share as a “red line.”

“No one should envision themselves as beyond the reach of our capabilities … Egypt's water is sacrosanct. Our response in case of [meddling with the Egyptian water share] will reverberate throughout the stability of the entire region,” Sisi said in press remarks in 2021.