Egypt says last round of GERD talks is ‘last chance’ before the second dam is full

CAIRO / KINSHASA (Reuters) – The last meeting between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam may be the last chance to launch talks again before it is filled for the second year in a row, Egypt said in a statement. on Sunday.

The meeting will conclude on Monday in Kinshasa. Previous attempts to reach agreement on the giant dam that Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile have come to a dead end.

Ethiopia says the dam is the key to its economic development and power generation. Egypt fears it will hamper its Nile water supply, while Sudan is concerned about the safety of the dam and about regulating water flow through its own dams and water stations.

Ethiopia has said it will refill the reservoir behind the giant hydroelectric dam after the seasonal rains began this summer, a move that Sudan and Egypt oppose.

“These negotiations are the last opportunity for the three countries to reach an agreement … before the coming flood season,” Egypt’s foreign minister said in a statement.

Last week, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said there would be “unimaginable instability in the region” if Egypt’s water supply was hit by the dam.

Sudan is currently embroiled in a strained border dispute with Ethiopia over the fertile Al-Fashqa region and completed joint military exercises with Egypt on Saturday.

Sudan said in a separate statement that Ethiopia had increased its interest in the negotiations by seeking to reopen talks on the distribution of the Nile.

“I invite everyone to make a fresh start, to open one or many windows of hope,” said Felix Tshisekedi, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and President of the African Union. mediator for the negotiations.

In March, Sudan welcomed an initiative by the UAE to mediate the dam talks and the border dispute, but also recently called for the United Nations, the European Union and the United States to be included as mediators.