9-party meetings on GERD to resume in Cairo in June

CAIRO – 16 May 2018: After 15 hours of continuous talks, Nile Basin countries’ negotiators concluded their nine-party meeting in Adis Ababa over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) with an agreement to meet again in Cairo in June.

Addressing the media after the end of the nine-party meeting, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that negotiations between the relevant contingents of the Nile Basin countries ended with having all participants agree to commit to the nine-party meeting’s outcomes that were outlined in a specific agreement signed by all parties.

“This round of negotiations was characterized with transparency,” Shoukry said, adding that the talks tackled all details of the most important issues and their solutions.

Second nine-party’s meeting outcomes:

The participants agreed on scheduling a regular tripartite meeting to be held between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan every six months on a rotational basis to enhance mutual cooperation between the three brotherly countries in a way that serves their interests and fulfills the aspirations of their peoples.




They also agreed on establishing a Tripartite Infrastructure Fund to move forward with joint infrastructure development projects, as well as having the Tripartite National Committee (TNC) of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt to deliver its concerns and remarks to the French consulting firm BRLi over its introductory technical report that was not mutually agreed upon.

The consultant shall respond to the inquires submitted over the introductory report within three weeks and one week before Cairo’s nine-party meeting on June 12-13, which will be attended by the TNC.



An independent scientific study group comprising of 15 members from the three countries will be consensually formed and shall submit the results of its work by August 2018 to be considered in the three countries’ future meetings.

On May 5, the technical committee of the Nile Basin countries of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, and their respective irrigation ministers, held a meeting in Adis Ababa with no positive signs of progress.

The talks of the nine-party meeting held in Sudan last April also failed to reach agreement.

Nile Basin countries’ officials have repeatedly voiced their full commitment to the principles of the 2015 agreement that ensures fair and equitable distribution of Nile water among the said countries.

Previously, amid a serious deadlock in talks over the stalling of the technical studies of the disputed dam, Egypt suggested including the World Bank as a neutral mediator in the tripartite technical committee’s talks on the GERD.

However, on January 21, Ethiopia announced its rejection of the suggestion.

In 2011, Ethiopia started the construction of the 6,000-megawatt Renaissance Dam over the Blue Nile River, one of the major sources of water that forms the Nile River downstream.

Since then, concerns have risen in Cairo and Khartoum over the negative impact the Ethiopian dam will have on their historic Nile water share, amounting to 55.5 billion cubic meters in Egypt only, in accordance with the historic 1959 agreement with Sudan.

Egypt depends entirely on Nile water for drinking and irrigation purposes, reiterating consistently its "historical right" to the river guaranteed in the 1929 and 1959 Nile agreements, which granted the country 87 percent of Nile water and the right to veto or approve irrigation projects in the upstream countries.