The second meeting of the Ministers of Water of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia started in Cairo on Monday to discuss proposals to fill and operate the Renaissance Dam, in the presence of officials from the United States and the World Bank.
The two-day meeting is expected to discuss technical proposals that began in Addis Ababa two weeks ago, as part of a roadmap agreed in Washington in early November to reach an agreement by January 15, 2020.
On 16 November, the Ministers of Water of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia held a meeting in Addis Ababa to discuss proposals to fill and operate the Renaissance Dam, in the presence of US and World Bank officials.
Khartoum is due to host the third meeting of water ministers in late December, according to a previous statement by the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation.
The Ethiopian-Egyptian negotiations on the Renaissance Dam, built by Addis Ababa since 2011, are stalled on the Blue Nile near the Ethiopian border with Sudan.
In mid-November, Ethiopia announced the completion of the construction of the dam Sarj, one of the projects of the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam, stressing that it is a reserve dam and is a milestone in the entire project, according to the Ethiopian News Agency.
According to previous information, the Renaissance Dam has a 5 km extension and a height of about 50 meters, while the main dam, which is undergoing technical negotiations, is built on an area of 1,800 square kilometers.
Cairo fears a possible negative impact of the dam on the flow of its annual share of the Nile River water, which amounts to 55 billion cubic meters, while Sudan gets 18.5 billion.
Addis Ababa says it is not aimed at harming Egypt's interests, and the purpose of the dam is to generate electricity.