File Photo: Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry taken on April 7, 2021. REUTERS
In statements to Sada El-Balad TV channel’s My Responsibility news night talkshow via telephone, Shoukry stated that there has been wide understanding among the countries that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has been visiting over the past week concerning the importance of Egyptian water security, particularly as it relates to the need for Ethiopia to show flexibility to reach for a legally binding agreement for the filling and operation of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
El-Sisi has been on a foreign tour since last Friday that started with Saudi Arabia followed by Germany then Serbia then France, where he discussed the latest developments regarding the GERD.
Egypt and Sudan, the two downstream countries, have been involved in decade-long talks with Addis Ababa over the GERD, which most recently have been stalled since April 2021.
Egypt is concerned that the filling and operation of the GERD will reduce its historic share of the Nile water.
Meanwhile, Sudan is worried about the impact of the GERD on regulating flows to its own dams.
Egypt and Sudan, who do not oppose the GERD outright, have sought to reach a binding deal with Ethiopia on the filling and operation of the dam while Ethiopia has rejected all such attempts.
In the absence of a legally binding deal, Ethiopia unilaterally completed the first and second filling of the dam, and started earlier this year operating the first turbine of the GERD to generate power.
It also seeks to start the third filling in August and September, according to a recent announcement by the GERD project manager.
Some 85 percent of the Nile’s waters in Egypt flow from the Ethiopian highlands through the Blue Nile – one of the Nile’s two main tributaries, along with the White Nile
Shoukry also commented about Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Cairo on Sunday as part of a regional African tour, stating that Egypt has balanced relations with all international partners in accordance with international law and Declaration by the United Nations.
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