Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia resume tripartite talks on GERD in Khartoum

CAIRO - 5 April 2018: A series of tripartite meetings between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia regarding the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) resumed on Thursday in Khartoum.

The meeting was attended by the three countries’ ministers of foreign affairs and water resources, in the presence of their intelligence chiefs.

The meetings were resumed after a four-month hiatus due to a disagreement over technical issues related to the dam’s impact on the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan. However, the leaders of the three countries, Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, held a meeting on the sidelines of the African Union summit in January. The three leaders agreed to continue the talks to reach a settlement in accordance with the outcomes of the 2015 agreement on the dam.

Egypt has voiced its concern over Ethiopia’s dam construction, as it would affect Egypt’s 55 billion cubic meter share of the Nile water. However, Addis Ababa sees that the dam is necessary for its development and would not negatively affect the downstream countries.

The Declaration of the Renaissance Dam Principles Charter tackles the management of the dam with written guarantees, and states that the dam’s reservoir would not be filled without the approval of Egypt and Sudan.