Ethiopian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nabyat Getachew said that the ongoing negotiations for the fourth consecutive day between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, have nothing to do with the process of starting filling the Renaissance Dam Lake.
Getacho stressed that the mobilization process is part of the functioning of the dam, while negotiations are to reach a comprehensive agreement for the long-term operating mechanisms.
And the Ethiopian TV reported that the dam will fill the initial mobilization according to the planned plan, by holding 4.9 billion cubic meters of water during the rainy season, indicating that 75% of the project was completed.
On Monday, meetings continue within the negotiations of the Renaissance Dam for the three parties and in the presence of observers, as reported by the official Sudanese News Agency (SUNA).
The agency said that negotiations continued yesterday, Sunday, with the Sudanese side and the observer team from the African and European Unions and the United States.
She added that the Sudanese side provided an explanation of its views and the main stages of negotiations between the three countries, and the impact of the dam on Sudan and other countries, as well as the technical points of dispute.
Egypt had said that the negotiations revealed a difference of views with Ethiopia, and that the issue of the Nile existed, while Sudan presented outstanding legal issues, and stressed the possibility of overcoming the technical points by negotiation, indicating that he had made proposals to solve these issues.
After the end of the second day of a new round of negotiations last Saturday under the auspices of the African Union, Khartoum announced that "the differences are limited", while Cairo spoke of "not agreeing until now."
Negotiations on the Renaissance Dam via video communications were resumed last Friday, under the auspices of the South African country, as the current president of the African Union.
The resumption of negotiations came in implementation of the results of a mini-summit sponsored by the African Union held last June 27, amid an Ethiopian commitment to fill and operate the dam in July, in exchange for an Egyptian-Sudanese refusal to take this step before reaching an agreement.
Observers from the United States, the European Union and South Africa are participating in the negotiations, as well as representatives of the African Union Office and Commission and its legal experts.
Egypt fears that its annual share of the Nile's water amounting to 55.5 billion cubic meters will be compromised, and demands an agreement on files, including the safety of the dam and the determination of its filling bases in times of drought.
While Addis Ababa says that it does not aim to harm the interests of Egypt or Sudan, and that the main objective of the dam is to generate electricity to support the development process.