President Hosni Mubarak held talks yesterday with Congolese President Joseph Kabila and Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, during which they confirmed the necessity of considering each other’s interests after five Nile basin countries signed an agreement to redistribute Nile water quotas, despite objections from Egypt and Sudan.
Suleiman Awad, a spokesperson for the president, quoted the Kenyan prime minister as saying that neither Kenya nor any of the source countries can “harm Egyptian water interests.” According to Awad, Mubarak had said, “What gathers us is a lot more than what divides us. The cooperation framework among Nile basin countries is an extendable one.”
Awad also said the Congolese president had stressed that a consensus must be reached “to achieve mutual interests for the Nile basin countries, including the source and drainage basin countries.”
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
