Egypt says last round of GERD negotiations is “last chance” before filling the second dam

CAIRO / KINSHASA (Reuters) – The last meeting between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam may be the last chance to relaunch the negotiations before being completed for the second year in a row, Egypt said in a Domigo statement.

The meeting ends on Monday in Kinshasa. Previous attempts to reach agreement on the giant dam that Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile have ended in a stalemate.

Ethiopia says the dam is the key to its economic development and energy generation. Egypt fears that this could jeopardize its water supply from the Nile, while Sudan is concerned about the safety of the dam and regulating the flow of water in its own dams and water stations.

Ethiopia has said it will refill the reservoir behind the giant hydroelectric dam after seasonal rains begin this summer, a move Sudan and Egypt oppose.

“These negotiations represent the final opportunity that the three countries should take advantage of to reach an agreement … before the next flood season,” Egypt’s foreign minister said in a statement.

Last week, Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said there would be “inconceivable instability in the region” if Egypt’s water supply were affected by the dam.

Sudan is currently involved in a tense border dispute with Ethiopia over the fertile al-Fashqa region, and on Saturday completed joint military exercises with Egypt.

In a separate statement, Sudan said Ethiopia had raised the stakes in the negotiations by trying to reopen discussions on the distribution of water in the Nile.

“I invite everyone to start over, to open one or more windows of hope,” said Felix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo and president of the African Union, who is the mediator in the negotiations.

In March, Sudan welcomed an initiative by the United Arab Emirates to mediate negotiations on the dam and the border dispute, but also recently called for the inclusion of the United Nations, the European Union and the United States as mediators.