Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia held a second round of revived talks on Saturday, which continued discussing the rules for filling and operating the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) under the auspices of South Africa, the 2020 head of the African Union (AU).
The video-conference meeting was attended by eleven AU observers, three observers from the EU, South Africa and the US, AU office representatives, the AU commission and AU legal experts.
An Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation source said that these meetings will continue for two weeks and will attempt to reach a legal agreement regarding the GERD’s filling and operating, to reduce the risk of flooding to the three countries and provide protection against ongoing droughts.
The three countries presented their stances on the negotiations, which contained the outstanding technical and legal disagreements, and agreed to continuing the meetings in the presence of several observers and experts.
Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia had reached a consensus regarding 90 percent of the controversial points during the June negotiations.
Ethiopia has insisted that it will never accept any agreement that restricts its water rights, with the purpose of the meetings to discuss the GERD’s construction and Ethiopia’s usage of the Nile river in its development projects.
