Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA
Ethiopia demands
"serious and fair" talks in order to return to the negotiating table
with Egypt and Sudan over its giant dam project on the River Nile, Ethiopian
Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew said.
In an interview with
China Global Television Network CGTN, Gedu said resolving the dispute over the
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD requires a "strong political
will" from the Egyptian side.
Tensions between
Ethiopia and Egypt over the $4.8 billion dam were building up after Addis Ababa
did not attend the latest round of US-sponsored talks held in Washington in
late February, which were expected to generate a final deal. It cited the need
for more time for further domestic consultations.
Only Egypt initialed an
agreement crafted by the US over the filling and operation of the dam, while
Ethiopia and Sudan did not.
Ethiopia said it plans
to commence filling the dam's reservoir in July, though outstanding issues over
the filling and operation of the dam remain unsolved.
"The solution for
disagreement again is negotiations. We demand serious and fair talks to take
place for us to return to the table once again. The only chance we have is to
agree on this. For this, strong political will from the Egyptian side is needed,"
Gedu said in the interview, a clip of which was published by the foreign
ministry on Monday.
Following Ethiopia's
absence from the Washington talks, Egypt accused it of deliberately not
attending to "hinder the path of negotiations".
Ethiopia hopes the mega
project, which is now around 71% complete, will make it Africa's biggest power
exporter. But Cairo fears the project will restrict supplies of the Nile
waters, on which it is almost entirely dependent.
Gedu said the mega
project is key to his country's efforts to eliminate poverty and overcome its
acute shortage of electricity.
"In Ethiopia, more
than 65 million citizens live without electricity and the investors we are
inviting to help us defeat poverty are suffering from insufficient power
supply, preventing industries from bearing fruit, and hundreds of factories are
affected by this," Gedu said.
"Every year,
hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians graduate from high schools and
universities, its mandatory to create jobs for these young people," he
said. "The key for [resolving] all these problems is found in the
completion of Renaissance Dam project."
Gedu emphasized that
Ethiopia, nevertheless, never sought to solely benefit from the Nile water.
"Though the source
of most of the Nile water can be located in Ethiopia and even with over 85
percent of the water contributed by Ethiopia, Ethiopia not a single day said we
have to benefit from this water alone," he said. "The water of the
Nile belongs to Ethiopians, Egyptians, Sudanese and people of other Nile basin
countries."
"We give full
recognition for the right of basin nations to use the water and we properly
understand our right of using the Nile water responsibly," Gedu said.
Gedu has slammed the
Arab League's push to resolve the row with Egypt over the dam as
"unacceptable", after the pan-Arab bloc earlier this month adopted a
draft resolution supporting Egypt's stance on the dispute.
Sudan insisted its name
be removed from the resolution, saying it "does not serve the spirit of
dialogue and negotiations", drawing Cairo's criticism which said Sudan
sought to "weaken the effect of the resolution."
"The [Arab]
League's intervention and promotion of conflict on a matter that is not even
concluded yet between the three countries is unacceptable", the Ethiopian
minister said.
The bloc had a chance
to use this situation to strengthen ties between the Horn of Africa and the
Middle East, he said.
"We believe the
Arab League can still positively impact the differences between Ethiopia and
Egypt. The Arab league should have a role to promote solidarity among countries
in the Eastern African region and the Middle East based on mutual
cooperation."
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