The dam is being used without causing significant damage to the downstream areas. It can help improve cooperation between all countries in the region.
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Ethiopia is ready to resume negotiations for the Grand Renaissance Dam.
Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen said his country’s government is sticking to the position Exhausting diplomatic resources and working together in a negotiation process for the Great Renaissance Dam (GERD), led by the African Union, with Egypt and Sudan to achieve win-win outcome.
We consider the GERD (acronym in English), he stressed, to be essential for promoting Ethiopian development and East African integration, so concluding an agreement on its use is very important for the country’s regional and international projection.
We want well-being for all riparian states and have been working to move negotiations forward, but until now this has not been possible, he said at a meeting with AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Bankole Adeoye.
According to him, Ethiopia will use the dam without causing significant damage to downstream areas. and convinced that it can help improve cooperation between all the countries of the region, especially those of the so-called Horn of Africa.
Several details cause disagreements between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan regarding GERD, including the filling of the reservoir. Egypt is demanding it take 10 years or more, a position shared by Sudan, and Ethiopia is considering doing so in seven years.
The Egyptians and Sudanese are also demanding the signing of a legally binding agreement on how it will work in drought cycles and what the mechanism for settling possible disputes will be, which Addis Ababa categorically refuses.
As of April 2021, negotiations have stalled despite efforts before and after that date by the United States, the World Bank and the African Union, or movements by organizations such as the Arab League.