Ahead of the ministerial meeting with Egypt and Sudan ... Ethiopian Irrigation Minister: We have completed 78% of the construction work of the Renaissance Dam.

The Ethiopian Minister of Irrigation and Water, Slichi Bakli, revealed that the construction rate in the Renaissance Dam has reached 78%, indicating that work on the dam is proceeding at a rapid pace.

In his tweet, Bakli added that negotiations with Egypt and Sudan regarding the mobilization and operation of the dam will begin today, Sunday, with the participation of his country.

He explained that today's meeting, which came at the invitation of the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation in South Africa and the current head of the African Union office, will be six-way, and will include the foreign and water ministers of the three countries (Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia).

Both Egypt and Sudan confirmed their participation in Sunday's meeting under the auspices of the African Union on the Renaissance Dam negotiations, amid European encouragements to build a "constructive" round of talks, days after Ethiopia announced it.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ahmed Hafez, said in press statements that Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdel Ati will participate during the new round of negotiations on the Renaissance Dam at noon on Sunday, without giving further details.

The confirmation of participation comes days after the Cairo announcement, summoning the Ethiopian Chargé d'Affairs to Cairo, in protest against "interference in internal affairs" by the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Dina Mufti, without details of what the latter said.

Yesterday, Saturday, the official Sudanese News Agency reported that Foreign Minister Omar Qamaruddin and Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas will participate in the same meeting, which is chaired by Pana Dora, Minister of International Cooperation in South Africa.

"The meeting will discuss Sudan's proposal to activate the negotiations, by giving a greater role to the African Union through its experts to reach a binding legal agreement on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam," the agency quoted an unnamed official source.

Negotiations have stalled since last November after several rounds failed to approximate positions between the three countries concerned, especially between Ethiopia and Egypt, regarding the rules for mobilizing and operating the dam, which is being built on the Blue Nile near the Ethiopian-Sudanese border at a cost of more than $ 4 billion.

Negotiations between the three countries stalled over a period of 9 years, amid mutual accusations between Cairo and Addis Ababa of intransigence and imposing unrealistic solutions.

Addis Ababa insists on filling the dam even if it does not reach an agreement with Cairo and Khartoum, while the latter two insist on the need to reach a tripartite agreement on the dam on the Blue Nile, one of the tributaries of the Nile River.

Cairo is concerned about the potential negative impact of the dam on the flow of its annual share of the Nile water, which amounts to 55.5 billion cubic meters, while Sudan gets 18.5 billion, while Addis Ababa says it does not aim to harm anyone, and that the aim of building the dam is primarily to generate electricity.