The round of negotiations on the Renaissance Dam continues today, Wednesday, between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, while Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly confirmed that there is consensus in the Egyptian and Sudanese positions on the file.
Madbouly said in a statement issued by the Prime Minister on Wednesday, that during his visit to Sudan, the necessity of negotiating a binding agreement on filling and operating the dam was stressed in a way that preserves the rights and interests of the three countries, and that Ethiopia would not take unilateral decisions.
Yesterday, Tuesday, negotiations on the Renaissance Dam were resumed between the Egyptian, Sudanese and Ethiopian irrigation ministers, who agreed to select experts in an attempt to dispel differences over this project.
The Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation said that differences arose during the negotiations of the Renaissance Dam between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, explaining that the differences related to the interpretation of procedures for merging the agreements.
The ministry added in a statement that the three countries will work to merge the proposals submitted by each country into a single joint proposal to be submitted to the President of the African Union on the 28th of this month.
For its part, the Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation said that today's negotiations discussed the procedural aspects, and that the three countries exchanged proposals regarding an agreement to fill and operate the Renaissance Dam.
The Egyptian, Sudanese and Ethiopian irrigation ministers agreed to select experts, in an attempt to dispel differences over this project.
The director of the Al-Jazeera office in Addis Ababa, Mohamed Taha Tawakkol, stated that each country submitted its own draft at the end of last July, within the framework of the efforts sponsored by the African Union, but it was then agreed to submit a unified draft.
A unified draft and indicated that the consolidated draft would cover several issues, among them the disagreement regarding the interpretation of the reference in the Tripartite Declaration of Principles signed in 2015, as Addis Ababa believes that the heads of the three countries represent the reference, while Egypt and Sudan see that international arbitration should also be adopted as a mechanism for settling disputes. The draft is supposed to also cover issues of filling and operating the dam.
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.
Ethiopia believes that the dam is necessary to achieve economic development, while Egypt considers it a vital threat to it, as the Nile River is a source of more than 95% of the country's irrigation and drinking water.
Despite the objections of Egypt and Sudan, Ethiopia announced on July 21 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.