According to a joint statement, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have agreed to launch urgent negotiations to conclude a deal between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan on the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and the rules governing its operation, on the Blue Nile within four months.
Since Ethiopia began construction on the enormous $4.2-billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) in 2011, Egypt has been concerned that the project may reduce the amount of water it receives from the Nile, but recently both countries decided to dialogue on how they could both be benefactors of the region’s natural resource.
According to a joint statement issued by the Egyptian president, the leaders of both nations are tired of the impasse and are willing to explore how they might reach an amicable solution, the statement reads in part, "In Cairo on Thursday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed discussed ways of overcoming the current stalemate in negotiations over the dam.”
Within four months, they decided "to launch expedited negotiations to complete the agreement between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan on the filling" of the dam and its operation.
The two presidents got together on the fringes of an African summit of neighbors of the war-torn Sudan hoping to put an end to the strife that has raged there for almost three months. The filling and operation of the dam have been the subject of protracted discussions since 2011, but no agreement has been reached between Ethiopia and its neighbors downstream.
Egypt, which depends on the Nile for 97% of its water demands, has long seen the construction as an existential danger. Nevertheless, the dam is essential to Ethiopia's economic objectives, and Addis Abeba declared in February 2022 that the country has started producing hydroelectric power for the first time.