FM to US envoy: We seek agreement on GERD before this summer

Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukry, and minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Ati, met today, Wednesday, with U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman, and his accompanying delegation to discuss the developments of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam negotiations and means of the success of the ongoing efforts to reach a fair, balanced and legally binding agreement on filling and operating the Dam.

Ambassador Ahmed Hafez, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that the two ministers reviewed during the meeting, the Renaissance Dam file negotiations over a decade since Ethiopia started building this dam without consulting with the two downstream countries till the ongoing negotiations on the rules for filling and operating the Renaissance Dam, which reflected  Ethiopia’s intransigence and its rejection of all technical theses on the filling and operating rules presented by Egypt during the negotiations or which were prepared by international mediators and accepted by Egypt, including the agreement concluded during the negotiations held under American auspices.

The spokesman added that the two ministers stressed during the meeting that Egypt still hopes that an agreement on the Renaissance Dam will be reached before the summer of this year, as the filling process of the dam must be carried out in accordance with an agreement that takes into account the interests of the two downstream countries.