Egypt says last round of GERD talks are “last chance” before filling second dam

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

The meeting ends on Monday in Kinshasa. Previous attempts to reach an agreement on the giant dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile have ended in a stalemate.

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

Ethiopia has said it will once again fill the reservoir behind the giant hydroelectric dam after seasonal rains begin this summer, an action that opposes both Sudan and Egypt.

“These negotiations represent the last chance the three countries must seize to reach an agreement … before the next flood season,” Egypt’s foreign minister said in a statement.

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

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

In a separate statement, Sudan said Ethiopia had increased its stakes in negotiations trying to reopen discussions on the distribution of Nile water.

“I invite everyone to start a new beginning, to open one or more windows of hope,” said Felix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo and president of the African Union, which is the mediator in the negotiations.

Sudan in March welcomed a UAE initiative to mediate in both dam negotiations and the border dispute, but has also recently called for the inclusion of the United Nations, the European Union and the United States. as mediators.