Today, Sunday, the Renaissance Dam negotiations are expected to resume after being suspended for more than a week at the request of Egypt and Sudan, who once again demanded a binding agreement on filling and operating the dam, which has become a title of intense tension between Cairo and Addis Ababa.

The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti announced that a six-party meeting called by the African Union will be held today with the participation of the Foreign and Irrigation Ministers in Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to discuss the path of the Renaissance Dam negotiations, and it is assumed that the meeting will be held remotely via video technology similar to previous meetings in light of the continuing outbreak Corona Virus.

Ethiopia had said in a previous statement that the negotiations would continue next Monday after being suspended at the request of Egypt and Sudan, and the statement confirmed Ethiopia's commitment to the tripartite negotiations because the agreement and negotiations are the only option for the three countries.

The new ministerial meeting comes while all previous rounds of negotiations have faltered, and did not result in any progress towards an agreement on the mechanisms of mobilizing and operating the Renaissance Dam that Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile near the Sudan borders at a cost of $ 4.6 billion, which, upon completion, will be the largest dam in Africa.

At a time when Egypt is pressing for a binding agreement to ensure the preservation of its share of the Nile water, which amounts to 55 billion cubic meters annually, Ethiopia confirms that it will not sign agreements with the Nile Basin countries that prevent it from implementing its future projects, and stresses at the same time that it does not aim to harm Egypt or In Sudan.

A Binding Agreement
Before returning to negotiations, Egypt and Sudan agreed yesterday to continue negotiations with Ethiopia to reach a binding agreement on filling and operating the Renaissance Dam in a manner that preserves the rights of the three countries.

In a joint statement, the two sides stressed - after talks between Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok and his Egyptian counterpart Mustafa Madbouly in Khartoum - the need to agree on a binding mechanism for settling disputes, and a mechanism for coordination between the three countries regarding the dam.

The statement indicated that the two sides agreed to restructure the Nile Valley Authority for River Navigation between the two countries. Madbouly was accompanied on his visit by the ministers of irrigation, electricity, health, trade and industry.

The visit, the first since the formation of the transitional government in Sudan last year, comes amid tension caused by Ethiopia's progress in the Renaissance Dam project. Last Monday, Khartoum asked to postpone negotiations on the dam for a week, for internal consultations.

The Sudanese Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, Yasser Abbas, said recently that they noticed an Ethiopian-Egyptian convergence during the recent round of negotiations, which aroused the interest of the Sudanese side.

For his part, Francesco Pope called on the Vatican yesterday for dialogue between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, and urged the three parties not to slide into armed conflict due to the dispute over the Renaissance Dam.

Despite the objections of Egypt and Sudan, Ethiopia announced last July that it had completed the first phase of filling the reservoir, amounting to 4.9 billion cubic meters, which allows testing the first two turbines in the dam. Lake water.