Cairo rejects Ethiopia’s remarks on GERD filling without agreement

Ethiopia’s announcement of its insistence on filling the Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD) next July even without reaching an agreement confirmed its intention and desire to impose a fait accompli on the two downstream countries, which is totally rejected by Egypt because it threatens the interests of the Egyptian and Sudanese peoples, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Hafez said Thursday.

Commenting on the statements of the Ethiopian ministers of foreign affairs and irrigation during a conference held in Addis Ababa on Wednesday on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the inauguration of the dam, Hafez said that such unilateral measures would have a negative impact on the region’s security and stability.

“It is unfortunate that Ethiopian officials use the language of sovereignty in their rhetoric about utilising the resources of a transboundary river, as they are a joint property of the riparian states, and it is not permissible to extend sovereignty over them or seek to monopolise them,” he added.

Rather, they must employ these natural resources to serve the peoples of the countries that share them on the basis of the rules of international law, the most important of which are the principles of co-operation, fairness and non-harm, Spokesman Hafez said.

He added that these Ethiopian statements were issued at a time when the Democratic Republic of Congo, which assumed the presidency of the African Union, is making appreciable efforts to relaunch negotiations in order to reach an agreement before the next flood season.

That reflected the absence of political will on the Ethiopian side to negotiate in order to reach a settlement to the Dam crisis, he said, adding that Egypt and Sudan have stressed the importance of the active involvement of the international community in negotiations led by the Democratic Republic of Congo through an international quartet that includes the United States, the European Union and the United Nations to ensuring the effectiveness of the negotiation process, pushing the three countries and helping them reach an agreement in the coming months.