New Impasse Hinders Resumption of GERD Talks
A new round
of negotiations between Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt aimed at resolving a
long-running dispute about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has once again
faltered.
Irrigation
ministers of Cairo, Addis Ababa, and Khartoum held a meeting on Sunday chaired
by the foreign minister of South Africa, current African Union president, to
discuss means of resuming negotiations.
“Sudan
insisted on the assigning of AU experts to offer solutions to contentious
issues ... a proposal which Egypt and Ethiopia have reservations about,”
Egypt’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted to social media.
The six-way
meeting failed to achieve any progress due to disagreements over means of
resuming negotiations, as well as the procedural aspects of managing the
negotiation process, the statement explained.
Cairo and
Addis Ababa insist on the three countries’ right to draft the texts and
provisions of GERD’s filling and operation agreement, the statement noted,
adding that the AU experts are not specialists in the technical and engineering
fields related to the management of water resources and dam operations.
In its own
statement on state news agency SUNA, Sudan said it objected to what it said was
a Jan. 8 letter from Ethiopia to the AU stating that Ethiopia was determined to
fill the reservoir for the second year in July with 13.5 million cubic meters
of water, whether an agreement is reached or not.
“We cannot
continue this vicious cycle of circular talks indefinitely,” Sudanese
irrigation minister Yasir Abbas said in a statement.
He stressed
that Khartoum was concerned the dam could overwhelm its nearby Roseires dam if
an agreement is not reached that would allow the countries to share data.
On Saturday,
Sudanese officials AU experts team held a meeting over GERD.
The meeting came
in response to Sudan’s call for giving AU experts a greater role to facilitate
the talks among the three countries to contribute to the preparation of a
second document for the proposed memorandum of agreement they earlier received
in previous meetings.
Parties
thoroughly discussed the importance of setting up a clear reference framework
for the role of the AU experts.
Khartoum also
stressed the necessity that the AU plays a more effective leadership role than
its role in the previous rounds of talks, highlighting the importance of
reaching a binding agreement to discuss and end any potential dispute.
Sudan rejects
dividing the agreement into first filling and then permanent operation and
demands reaching a single, comprehensive agreement that addresses all GERD
issues.
South African
Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor voiced her “regret that the talks reached a dead
end.”
Pandor said
she would refer the matter to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, current
chairperson of the African Union, for necessary measures.
The three
countries have been engaged in strenuous negotiations for about 10 years to
agree on mechanisms for operating and filling the dam, without yielding any
results so far.
Egypt has
called GERD an existential threat and worries that it will reduce the country’s
share of Nile waters.
Ethiopia says
the 145-meter tall dam will be an engine of development and is vital to meet
the power needs of its population.
Sudan, in the
middle, worries about the effects on its own dams, although it stands to
benefit from access to cheap electricity.
