The third round of trilateral negotiations between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) kicked off today in Cairo. The two-day meeting aims to make progress on resolving technical and legal differences related to the hydropower dam project.
Speaking ahead of the talks on Twitter, Ethiopia's Chief Negotiator Seleshi Bekele reiterated his country's position that it will operate the dam based on principles of equitable and reasonable utilization of the Nile waters, in line with an agreement signed between the leaders in 2015.
"The meeting is expected to make progress on unresolved technical and legal differences," Seleshi said.
Following the inconclusive negotiations in September, which marked the first round of talks in over a year after a prolonged hiatus, the current discussions have been initiated to address the outstanding issues. It aims to accelerate the process of finalizing such an agreement to settle the long-running dispute.
Progress has proved elusive since construction of the $4 billion GERD began in 2011. Both Egypt and Sudan are concerned about its impact on their water supplies dependent on the Nile River.
Ethiopia is edging closer to completing the dam project, with over 90 percent of the civil works now finalized. Two of the dam's turbines have also started generating power. However, outstanding issues around filling and operation procedures remain a point of contention in the negotiations.
