The foreign ministers of Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia said early on Friday they had reached the basis of an agreement on the sharing of Nile waters and Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam.
"A
full agreement has been reached between our three countries on the principles
of the use of the eastern Nile Basin and the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam,"
Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti told reporters early on Friday morning. The
principles will be submitted to the heads of the three states for approval,
Karti said at a press conference. The talks, which started in Khartoum on
Tuesday, focused on the sharing of the Nile river waters between the countries
and resolving a dispute over a hydroelectric dam being built by Addis Ababa. Egypt
fears Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam project would diminish its share of the
river waters. In several rounds of talks, Ethiopia has said the project will
have no effect on Sudan and Egypt downstream. Karti hailed the basis as "a
new path in the relations of our three countries" but gave no further
details of the document. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said the
agreed principles marked "the beginning of more cooperation between our
three countries". His Ethiopian counterpart Tedros Adhanom said the deal
would open "a new chapter between the three countries". Egypt has
expressed opposition to any project that might disrupt the flow of the Nile. But
the principles agreed upon "answer the concerns" of Egypt and Sudan,
Egypt's water resources minister said. The Blue Nile joins the White Nile at
Khartoum to form the Nile, which flows through Sudan and Egypt before emptying
into the Mediterranean. Ethiopia began diverting the Blue Nile in May 2013 to
build the 6,000 MW dam which will be Africa's largest when completed in 2017. Ethiopian
officials have said the project to construct the 1,780-metre-long and 145-metre
high dam will cost $4.2 billion (3.2 billion euros) Egypt believes its
"historic rights" to the Nile are guaranteed by two treaties from
1929 and 1959 which allow it 87 percent of the Nile's flow. Source ( AFP)
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