Continuing the diplomatic campaign to inform regional and international parties of the urgent need to resolve differences with Addis Ababa over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), this week Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty raised the issue in a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

Egypt’s top diplomat underlined the importance of reaching a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam and rejected any unilateral acts that harm downstream countries.

Although the GERD file was not an explicit focus of Abdelatty’s and head of the General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamel’s visit to Eritrea this week, they did discuss issues linked to Egypt’s water security, including enhancing security and stability in the Horn of Africa and the situations in Sudan and Somalia, alongside measures to restore maritime navigation and international trade through the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait.

“Egyptian-Eritrean relations have been strong ever since Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia. The relationship is very important to Egypt because of its links with the Ethiopian, Sudanese, and Somali files. Coordination with Eritrea is an essential component of Egypt’s national security,” said African affairs expert Ramadan Qurani.

This week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the appointment of a UN special envoy on Water. Retno Marsudi, Indonesia’s foreign minister, will take on the role in November.

Egypt welcomed the decision which was approved by 151 countries and aims to support countries, especially those facing water scarcity, achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Egypt said that it was looking forward to cooperating with the new envoy to address water scarcity, promote sustainable water resource management and enhance cross-border cooperation on water in accordance with international law.

Nader Noureldeen, professor of land and water resources at Cairo University, noted that the growing number of conflicts over water, including between Egypt and Ethiopia,  had made the envoy position an urgent necessity.

“The water envoy can mediate between parties, try to bridge their differences, set rules for dealing with the problem of water scarcity and provide them with the experts and resources needed to deal with their problems,” he told Al-Ahram Weekly.

According to Qurani, water scarcity could well be the cause of future wars.

When it comes to GERD, he explained, the presence of an unbiased international envoy is likely to help Egypt’s negotiators. “An international envoy will provide Egypt with the political and scientific support needed to highlight the future repercussions of the dam,” he told the Weekly.

Marsudi’s appointment comes as tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia have escalated over the latest filling of GERD and Addis Ababa’s unilateral actions.

In a letter to the UN Security Council (UNSC), Ethiopia asked Egypt “to abandon its aggressive approach” towards the controversial hydroelectric dam and urged UN officials to “take note of Egypt’s repeated threat to use force against Ethiopia”.

Ethiopia’s letter was a response to a letter Abdelatty sent to the UNSC on 1 September reiterating Egypt’s rejection of unilateral Ethiopian actions.

Abdelatty pointed out that Addis Ababa’s unilateral policies were in breach of international law and the Declaration of Principles signed between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia in 2015, as well as the 2021 UNSC presidential statement which urged Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia to resolve their differences through negotiations.

This is not the first time that Egypt has referred the issue to the UNSC. It sent its first letter in 2020, after which the international body called on the African Union to mediate and reach a binding agreement within six months.

“Given that some 50 months have passed without reaching an agreement, Egypt sent another letter this year to highlight Ethiopia’s intransigence, its determination to waste time and refusal to acknowledge that the Nile is an international river,” said Noureldeen.

Ethiopia completed its fifth filling of GERD early this month.

Egypt and Sudan have repeatedly raised concerns that the dam will threaten their supply of water, especially during drought years.

Multiple rounds of tripartite talks have failed to secure an agreement.

Addis Ababa, says Qurani, has shown no interest in the harm its actions might do to downstream countries and has yet to present a single study of its social, economic, and ecological impacts.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 19 September, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly