CAIRO (AP) – Egypt’s president met with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Cairo on Tuesday ahead of Mnuchin’s first visit to Sudan since the end of Khartoum’s pariah status.
The office of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said in a statement that the president and Mnuchin are discussing mutual and regional issues, including the latest developments in talks with Sudan and Ethiopia over a disputed dam that Ethiopia is building across the Blue Nile River.
The statement said El-Sissi appreciated the efforts of the US in the dam talks last year, which led to a draft agreement produced by the US to resolve the long-standing dispute over the massive project.
The three Nile Valley countries met on Sunday in South Africa, the current president of the African Union, which mediates an agreement between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.
Experts from the three countries and the AU were to meet on Monday, but Sudan boycotted the meeting and demanded a greater role for AU experts in the negotiations.
Egypt initialed the draft agreement, which was drawn up by the United States in February, but Ethiopia did not attend the signing ceremony and accused President Donald Trump’s government of committing itself to Egypt. Sudan attended the meeting but did not sign.
The US suspended aid to Ethiopia due to the “lack of progress” in the talks and the US “concerned about Ethiopia’s unilateral decision to start filling the dam before an agreement and all necessary dam safety measures were in place.”
Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam has caused severe tensions between the three countries.
According to the SUNA news agency SUNA, Mnuchin would travel to Sudan’s capital Khartoum on Wednesday to meet with the country’s leaders.
This would be the first visit by a senior U.S. official since Washington last month approved the removal of Sudan from the U.S. list of state sponsors for terrorism.
According to the SUNA report, Mnuchin will meet with Genl. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council, and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok discuss possible debt relief from US economic aid. It did not provide further details.
Mnuchin said last month he would work with Congress and the transitional government in Khartoum to advance Sudan’s debt relief efforts by 2021.
Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the army to overthrow longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.