The Countdown Begins for Promoting Solutions for The Ethiopian-Egyptian Dam Crisis
A trilateral meeting was held on Monday in Addis Ababa between the leaders of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan to discuss differences over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
The three leaders set a one-month deadline for each country to lay out possible solutions for the pending technical issue over the Ethiopian Dam. They agreed to hold a meeting after the month’s deadline with the foreign and irrigation ministers of each country to discuss the proposals.
‘‘Rest assured. Everything is going well. We are speaking as one nation, not three,” President El-Sisi told reporters after the meeting.
"Rest assured. Everything is going well. We are speaking as one nation, not three", source: #Egypts President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, speaking at the end of th's morning's trilateral discussion with the leaders of #Ethiopia and #Sudan in #AddisAbeba. #Nile.
Source @SaadAbedine pic.twitter.com/1mFO93A9c7— Addis Standard (@addisstandard) January 29, 2018
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn assured El Sisi and Al-Bashir yesterday that neither of their countries will be negatively affected by the GERD and during the meeting that the project “was never intended to harm any country but to fulfill vital electricity needs and enhance development cooperation in the region.”
Talks between the three countries have been going on for months over disagreements on the wording of a study on the dam’s environmental impact and Egypt has insisted that technical studies must be done to assess the impact and even asked that the World Bank to be appointed as arbitrator.
