The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that negotiations with Egypt and Sudan on the Renaissance Dam will resume today, Monday, noting that the United States severing its relations with Ethiopia will not affect it.
The official Ethiopian News Agency, Saturday, quoted the ministry’s spokesman, Dina Mufti, as saying that negotiations between the three countries will start Monday, while no Egyptian or Sudanese confirmation has yet been issued regarding the date of resuming the Renaissance Dam negotiations.
Mufti clarified that Ethiopia does not surrender its national interest to other parties affected by US pressure, without further details, and stressed that the US cut off its relations with his country does not affect Ethiopia, but rather America is affected by it.
With regard to the visit of the Egyptian Foreign Minister to Somaliland, and what was promoted by Cairo opening a military base in Hargeisa, Mufti said that Egypt's establishment of relations with any country does not affect Ethiopia negatively, noting that Addis Ababa does not accept any relations that harm its interests.
The Mufti, in a previous statement to Al-Jazeera, had denied that Addis Ababa had submitted a new proposal in the negotiations on the Renaissance Dam, explaining that what was presented was the filling of the dam in its coming stages, and he also expected that the negotiations would resume according to the proposal submitted by Egypt and Sudan, and confirmed his country's desire In the continuation of the Renaissance Dam negotiations to reach a comprehensive agreement.
On July 21, the African Union held a mini-summit with the participation of the three countries, about a week after the conclusion of negotiations sponsored by the Union for about 10 days without an agreement, and the summit resulted in a renewed call for new tripartite negotiations.
In the recent first meeting, Egypt and Sudan criticized the start of the single filling of the dam by Ethiopia.
Negotiations between the three countries have faltered over the past years, amid mutual accusations between Cairo and Addis Ababa of intransigence and a desire to impose unrealistic solutions. While Addis Ababa says it does not aim to harm the interests of Egypt and Sudan, and that the aim of building the dam is primarily to generate electricity.