The work of the tripartite meeting ended via video at the level of foreign and irrigation ministers in Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, to discuss contentious issues in the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam file on Sunday evening, and it was agreed to hold a new meeting on Tuesday, according to what the Sudanese side announced.

A Sudanese source told Al Jazeera that the tripartite meeting - which was held via video - did not succeed in persuading Ethiopia to return to the previously agreed agenda or define a new agenda to discuss contentious issues in the Renaissance Dam negotiations.

This ministerial meeting is the first to be held with the participation of foreign ministers, since the African Union sponsored the negotiations last July.

The Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation said in a statement issued after the meeting that it had been decided to resume negotiations on Tuesday "to work on unifying the texts of the agreements submitted by the three countries." The ministry renewed its demand to return to the agenda set by the African Union, the sponsor of the negotiations.

Disagreement over the agenda

On the fifth of August, Egypt and Sudan had requested the suspension of negotiations for internal consultations on the Ethiopian proposal, which they said contravenes what was agreed upon during the mini-African summit on July 21, which is denied by Ethiopia, confirming that the document it presented is consistent with the outputs. That top.

The Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation indicated at the time that the agenda had shifted "from what was agreed upon over the past years (the agreement to fill and operate the dam and future projects on the Blue Nile), to a new one related to water sharing among the Nile Basin countries."

A Sudanese government source said that high political-level contacts made by the African Union between the three countries in the past few days paved the way for the resumption of negotiations.

On Saturday, the prime ministers of Egypt and Sudan expressed optimism that an agreement could be reached. "The two parties see the need to reach a binding agreement that guarantees the rights and interests of the three countries in accordance with the Declaration of Principles agreement signed in 2015 and the principles of international law, provided that it guarantees an effective and binding mechanism for settling disputes," a joint statement said.

The Renaissance Dam, which Ethiopia has been building on the Blue Nile since 2011, has become a source of intense tension between Addis Ababa on the one hand and Cairo and Khartoum on the other hand. This dam is expected to become the largest water-based electric power plant in Africa.

Since 2011, the three countries have been negotiating to reach an agreement on filling and operating the dam, but despite these years, they have failed to reach an agreement.

Ethiopia believes that the dam is necessary to achieve economic development, while Egypt considers it a vital threat to it, as the Nile River provides it with more than 95% of its needs of irrigation and drinking water.

In June, Ethiopia announced that it had begun filling its giant dam, which worried Cairo and Khartoum.