Page 6 - AsiaElec Week 24

AsiaElec COMMENTARY AsiaElec

Little hope for GERD

talks this week

Both Egypt and Ethiopia have failed to offer any hope of compromise in the
GERD dispute, despite efforts by Sudan to restart talks, writes Richard Lockhart

CHINA HOPES of any resumption in talks between not affect water supplies from the River Nile in
Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over completing Egypt.
WHAT: construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renais- “A timeline must be set to finish up negotia-
Egypt, Ethiopia, and sance Dam (GERD) were rekindled this week as tions, so it does not turn into a new tactic of stall-
Sudan are talking again online talks are held between the three countries. ing and shirking responsibility from the 2015
this week about GERD Talks began on June 10 after Sudanese efforts Declaration of Principles which all three coun-
to get Egypt and Ethiopia to resume negotiations tries agreed to,” Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah
WHY: “in order to reach a comprehensive and satisfac- al-Sisi’s office said in a statement on June 9 ahead
Ethiopia insists it will tory agreement that meets the interests of the of the talks.
continue construction three countries.” Al-Sisi added that Ethiopia was “inconsist-
with or without an Ahead of the talks, both Egypt and Ethiopian ent” with its legal obligations and “casts a shadow
agreement with Egypt. leaders set out their positions this week, but did over the negotiations.”
Mediation has failed not give any indication that they anticipated a Al-Sisi held telephone talks with US President
breakthrough. Donald Trump on June 10, where he brought up
WHAT NEXT: The virtual meeting was attended by inter- the GERD issue.
With few signs of any national observers from the US, the European US involvement is crucial, as Washington had
compromise, the talks Union and South Africa, the current chair of the hosted abortive talks on the GERD project in
in all probability will fail African Union. February that ended in failure as the Ethiopians
again “It is hard to describe the meeting as positive returned home without any agreement.
or [to say] it has reached any significant result, as Al-Sisi’s words were directed at Ethiopia, as
it has focused on procedural issues that are rel- Cairo accuses Addis Ababa of failing to keep to
evant to the schedule of the meetings, the refer- the 2015 Declaration.
ence of the discussion, and the role and number
of the observers,” the Egyptian Irrigation Minis- Ethiopian position.
try said in a statement. Indeed, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s
There has been heavy Chinese involvement statement to his country’s parliament earlier this
in GERD, both on the finance and construction week insisted that Ethiopia would go ahead with
side. finishing the dam.
Although the Ethiopian government has However, he gave no concrete details about
tried to finance the $5bn project from domestic seeking to move the talks with Egypt forward.
sources, China lent Ethiopia $1bn to fund the Abiy defended Ethiopia’s record on the GERD
construction of transmission lines. project, and reiterated his country’s determina-
Meanwhile, China Gezhouba Group is car- tion to finish construction.
rying out commissioning work at the hydro pro- “We have amicably resolved the dam’s elec-
ject, and Voith Hydro Shanghai is carrying out tromechanical problems that delayed the civil
electrical, mechanical and constrution work at construction, and other related works,” he noted,
the generating units and spillways. adding that the project evaluation and control
had also been made dependable and standard.
Egyptian position He also said the entire construction was pro-
Ahead of the talks, both parties again outlined gressing as planned and had reached the filling
their positions, which have not changed since of the reservoir.
February. “For us, GERD is a matter of development
The Egyptian side said early on that it urged and national identity that will not hurt Egypt
Ethiopia not to take any unilateral action with and Sudan,” he said. “No one can stop us from
regards to filling the dam until a tripartite agree- completing the dam.”
ment is reached. Abiy also stressed that negotiations had
Egypt’s position is that the talks have so far reached the final phase, without providing fur-
been fruitless, and Cairo has failed to accept ther details.
Ethiopia’s reassurances that the project would

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