Egypt's FM Receives Congolese Official Delegation to Discuss Disputed GERD File

On Wednesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received the coordinator of the unit in charge of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s upcoming chairmanship of the African Union for 2021, Professor Alphonse Ntumba Luaba, in Cairo, according to ministry's spokesman Ahmed Hafez.

In a statement, the spokesman said that Shoukry welcomed Professor Ntumba and his accompanying delegation to Cairo, stressing that the visit aims to discuss the latest developments of the disputed Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD) file and its various dimensions, taking into account the AU’s auspices of the course of the negotiations being held among the countries of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Shoukry also welcomed the election of Felix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as African Union Chair for the year 2021

During the meeting, the Egyptian top diplomat voiced Egypt's great appreciation for the Congolese efforts to help reach a binding legal agreement on the rules over the filling and operation of the GERD, taking into account the interests of the three countries.

The Egyptian top diplomat also affirmed support to a Sudanese proposal aimed at developing the negotiation mechanism by creating an international quartet encompassing in addition to the AU, the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN), and the United States.

In that regard, Ntumba declared his country's congruence with the Sudanese suggestions on the matter, which is expanding the role of the experts in negotiations.

The quartet shall mediate through the negotiations to take place under the auspices of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, and that is to help to seal a legal binding agreement among the three African states as soon as possible.

In mid-July 2020, Ethiopian authorities unilaterally carried out the first phase of the filling process with 4.9 billion cubic meters; and it is expected – as reported by the BBC- that the second phase of the filling would reach 13 billion cubic meters.

The dispute among Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia dates back to May 2011 when Ethiopia started building the dam; Egypt voiced concern over its water share [55.5 billion cubic meters].

Three years later, a series of tripartite talks between the two countries along with Sudan began to reach an agreement, while Ethiopia continued the dam construction.

In 2015, the three countries signed the Declaration of Principles, per which the downstream countries should not be negatively affected by the construction of the dam.

In October 2019, Egypt blamed Addis Ababa for hindering a final agreement concerning a technical problem, calling for activating Article No. 10 of the Declaration of Principles, which stipulates that if the three countries could not find a solution to these disputes, they have to ask for mediation.

Washington had brokered tripartite negotiations among the three countries, in the presence of the President of the World Bank (WB) starting from November 6, 2019, until February 27 and 28, 2020.

During these rounds of talks, tangible outcomes were agreed on among the three parties concerning the rules and mechanics of operating the dam and the filling process of the reservoir during drought and prolonged drought; however, an agreement was not sealed.

Constructions in the Grand Renaissance Dam started on April 2, 2011, at a cost of $4.8 billion. The dam is located on the Blue Nile with a capacity of 74 billion cubic meters and is expected to generate up to 6,000 megawatts of power.