Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for turning a new page in the Egypt-Ethiopia relations during his speech in the Ethiopian parliament on Wednesday.
Sisi arrived in the Ethiopian capital Monday night, shortly after signing a declaration of principles on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam with Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in Khartoum.
The president said the newly signed agreement should push the three states to find common ground, alongside the state of South Sudan.
He expressed his hopes for the agreement to develop in a manner which would resolve the existing sticking points in the Cooperative Framework Agreement "for it to expand and to include all Nile Basin countries" and cater to their needs.
The agreement, also known as the Entebbe Agreement, was signed in 2010 by five Nile Basin countries to re-divide the Nile water's shares. The signing was strongly opposed by Egypt.
"Our duty entails we leave our children a better legacy," Sisi said, calling for building "bridges of trust" between the two nations.
When Ethiopia began the construction of the hydroelectric Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile in 2011, concerns in Egypt surfaced regarding how the dam will affect its share of Nile water.
For decades, Egypt has been annually receiving 55 billion cubic metres of the river's water, the largest share, as per agreements signed in the past century.
During his Wednesday address, Sisi stressed that the Nile is the "only source of water, or better yet, of life for 90 millions" living in Egypt, referring to the "extremly dry desert" nature of Egypt's environment.
Upon completion, the $4 billion dam will be Africa's largest dam. It aims to generate cheap electricity to countries as far away from the Nile basin as South Africa and Morocco.
