Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti on Saturday said Ethiopia will follow the African Union-led process concerning trilateral negotiations on the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) despite Egypt and Sudan’s call for quartet negotiation talks, reported Anadolu Agency.
Tensions between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan have intensified as several rounds of negotiation talks over the filling and operation of the Nile dam have failed to produce a breakthrough. The latest round of African Union-brokered negotiations in Congo’s capital of Kinshasa in April also failed to make progress on the issue.
Sudan has proposed the European Union (EU), the United States (US), and United Nations (UN) join the African Union as mediators to solve the dam issue. Egypt has backed the proposal, but Ethiopia’s government has rejected it.
“The EU and the US are still observers and we don’t mind if their roles are enhanced,” Mufti told a news conference on Saturday.
He said enhanced roles would entail that they can raise issues, comment on issues, and have a certain level of say, but the African Union suffices to lead the negotiation process.
“It is an African water,” Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Mufti said Egypt and Sudan’s adamant approach to the African Union process in their bid to internationalize the issue won’t be helpful.
“The impasse can be overcome by agreeing on the filling and operation of the dam,” he said.
The Ethiopian official added that only once the filling and operation terms are reached, the talks can proceed to the other issues, including a comprehensive agreement.
Mufti said signing a comprehensive agreement entails water sharing, and that would be for all the 11 riparian countries of the Nile to determine.
In related news, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President, Felix Tshisekedi, who is also the current head of the African Union, met Egyptian and Sudanese officials on Saturday amid international and regional efforts to relaunch negotiations over the disputed Ethiopian dam on the Nile River’s main tributary.
