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Ethiopia’s Former Minister for Water, Irrigation, and Energy, and later Chief negotiator for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Seleshi Bekele said that Ethiopia is willing to resume the tripartite talk with Egypt and Sudan.
Mr. Seleshi is now Ethiopian Ambassador to the United States.
He remarked this Friday during a conversation with Ambassador Mike Hammer, who was appointed as U.S. Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa earlier this month, replacing Ambassador David Satterfield.
Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, too, has expressed Ethiopia’s willingness in the continuation of the African Union-led tripartite talk over GERD which is said to be over 90 percent completed at this point.
Dina Mufti, the spokesperson, has told journalists in Addis Ababa this week, during a briefing, that the third round of filling the reservoir will take place this year too.
From the first and second phases of filling, Ethiopia seizes the rainy months of July and August to fill the reservoir.
So far, the Dam has over 18 billion cubic metres of water, and Ethiopia has already started generating hydroelectric power from two turbines, based on claims from Ethiopian government sources.
When the project is completed, it is expected to generate more than 6000 MW of power with which Ethiopia aspires to achieve ensuring access to electricity for more than 65 percent of its 120 million population.
Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia had been negotiating over Ethiopia’s Mega Dam on the Blue Nile for many years now but without any success.
After a disagreement with the U.S. brokered talk in 2020, the negotiation had been under the auspices of the African Union – something that got support from China and Russia.
However, that did not lead to an agreement, and the relationship between the three countries has soured.
There have been apparent moves by Egypt to destabilise Ethiopia by exploiting internal divisions along ethnic lines but it did not bring about desired results for Egypt so far.
In 2017, the Ethiopian government openly blamed Egypt for supporting radical ethnic nationalist groups.
A recent remark by former European, Simo Parviainen, a former Finnish diplomat and an expert in international relations, said that there are groups in Egypt and Sudan that are willing to work with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), with the aim to sabotage the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
“TPLF is now desperate to find partners in Sudan and Egypt to launch another catastrophic war,” he said.
Egypt and Sudan have not yet remarked about Ethiopia’s willingness to resume talk over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Another development regarding the dam talk is that the United Arab Emirates is reportedly working on mediating the three countries in Abu Dhabi – if true something that would take the negotiation process outside of the African Union.
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