The meeting held in Washington between the foreign and irrigation ministers of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, under the auspices of the United States, has yielded positive results, including the continuation of talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the BLue Nile and setting a clear schedule for future meetings, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Thursday
CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th November, 2019) The meeting held in Washington between the foreign and irrigation ministers of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, under the auspices of the United States, has yielded positive results, including the continuation of talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the BLue Nile and setting a clear schedule for future meetings, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Thursday.
The top diplomats, accompanied by their delegations, met in the US capital on Wednesday. The meeting was also attended by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and World Bank President David Malpass.
"The meetings have produced positive results that will set a course of negotiations and a clear and specific timetable," Shoukry said in a statement, which was issued by Egypt's Foreign Ministry.
The statement also praised "the constructive role of the US Treasury Secretary and the attention he paid to this subject," and that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi was appreciative of US President Donald Trump's sponsorship of the ongoing negotiations and the role he played, which Sisi said would "contribute to reaching an agreement on filling and operating the Renaissance Dam."
Ethiopia began building what is expected to become Africa's biggest hydroelectric power site in 2012. However, tensions rose when Egypt expressed concern that it and Sudan, which is located downstream, might experience water shortages because of the project. The sides have since held multiple rounds of talks on the issue.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have agreed to settle their row over the GERD by January 15, and to convene in Washington on December 9, 2019, and January 13, 2020, to assess the progress.
The ministers also agreed to hold four technical governmental meetings at the level of water ministers, which are to be supported and observed by the World Bank and the United States, according to a joint statement published on the US Treasury Department's website late on Wednesday.
