CAIRO, June 25 (NNN-MENA) – Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, and U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, on Wednesday spoke over the phone, discussing Ethiopia’s hydro-power dam, being built on the Nile River, as well as, other regional issues.
“Minister Shoukry touched on the latest developments regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) issue, in light of the stalled negotiations, due to intransigent Ethiopian stances,” said Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ahmed Hafez, in a statement.
The two officials also discussed other regional issues of mutual concern, including the developments in Libya, Palestine, Syria and Yemen.
The talks between Shoukry and Pompeo came, a day after Arab foreign ministers voiced their support to Egypt’s position on the Nile dam issue, after their virtual meeting, hosted by the Cairo-based Arab League.
Over the past few years, tripartite talks between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, on the rules of filling and operating the GERD have been fruitless, amid Egyptian concern that the dam construction would affect Egypt’s annual share of Nile water.
Ethiopia said, it would soon start filling the reservoir, while Egypt repeatedly warned against any unilateral action without a prior tripartite agreement.
The 4-billion-dollar dam is expected to produce over 6,000 megawatts of electricity and become Africa’s largest hydro-power dam on completion.
Filling the reservoir, whose total capacity is 74 billion cubic metres, may take several years.
Egypt, being concerned about its 55.5-billion-cubic-metre annual share of the river water, seeks to prolong the period of filling the GERD, to avoid possible impacts of water shortage, which is a main point of their talks.– NNN-MENA
